A method to measure the azimuth of a laser-tracking cooperative target by changing inner laser's direction

To solve the problem of measuring the azimuth attitude angle of a laser tracking cooperative target at a long distance, a high-precision measurement method based on beam direction is proposed in this paper. First, the optical properties of the cube-corner prism and the principle of laser tracking based on the cube-corner prism are described in detail. Second, this paper proposes a method for azimuth attitude angle measurement based on beam direction using the cube-corner prism with an incision, a scanning mirror, and a photodetector. It then analyzes the mathematical relationship between the laser beam vector, the cube-corner prism with incision, the scanning mirror, the photodetector, and the cooperative target, and establishes the attitude solution model with a cooperative target design. Finally, a high-precision attitude measurement system is constructed, experimental data acquisition and parameter model calibration are carried out, and accuracy analysis and evaluation are carried out through verification experiments. The experimental results show that the measuring device proposed in this paper is ingenious and practical, and the measuring angle error is less than 0.0187° in the working range of ±20°, which meets the demand of high-precision engineering applications.