A bio-inspired polarization navigation sensor based on artificial compound eyes

Abstract

Insect compound eyes are optical systems with small volume and compact structure. The ommatidium in the dorsal rim area of some insects have polarized vision, which can perceive the polarization pattern of the sky and provide navigation information for themselves. In this paper, inspired by the polarization-sensitive compound eyes of insects, a bio-inspired polarization navigation sensor based on artificial compound eyes is designed. The sensor consists of an artificial compound eye, an integrated polarization detector and an integrated circuit. The optical path of the sensor uses the lens defocus method, which can ensure that the sensor obtains redundant polarization information. The integrated polarization detector is used to obtain the polarization information of the incident light, and the integrated circuit is responsible for the calculation. In order to extract effective information from images, we propose a multi-threshold segmentation method to filter and classify effective pixels. Use the least square method to fit the inherent error of the sensor and then compensate it. The indoor calibration accuracy of the sensor is ±0.3°, and the outdoor calibration accuracy is ±0.5° The. sensor can provide accurate direction information for general smart mobile devices. The size of the sensor is 4×4×2cm, and the weight is only 15g. The key components of the sensor can be mass-produced, and it is a miniaturized and low-cost polarization navigation sensor.

Reconfigurable Microlens Array Enables Tunable Imaging Based on Shape Memory Polymers

“…Each microlens unit of an MLA operates independently and works as a whole, which enables light manipulation, optical phase modulation, resolution improvement, and aberration correction. As a spatially distributed MLA, biomimetic compound eyes (CEs) have significant advantages over general planar MLAs in large field-of-view (FOV) imaging, high temporal resolution, , and the ability to detect rapidly moving objects, revealing great potential in cutting-edge fields, for instance, large FOV imaging, robot vision, autonomous driving, , and endoscopy . Nevertheless, due to the complex 3D configuration, the fabrication of CEs is much more challenging than that of planar MLAs.…”