Velocity measurement for moving surfaces using spatial filtering method based on area image sensor

The idea of using spatial filtering method to measure velocity of vehicles for an inertial navigation system is put forward. Corresponding optical system, including a 532 nm solid-state laser as active illumination, is established. A 17.92 mm × 14.34 mm area charge coupled device (CCD) is employed both as detector and as spatial filter. The spatial filtering characteristics are theoretically analyzed using a power spectral density function. The spatial filtering operation of CCD is performed fully by software. Therefore, the parameters of the spatial filter, such as the size and the number of spatial period, are changeable. In addition, the CCD is arranged as two differential spatial filters without any other additional elements. Experiments are carried out to examine the feasibility of CCD as two differential spatial filters and the influence of the number of spatial period on the signal frequency. The results indicate that the more number of spatial period the more accurate measurements can be obtained, and show that the relation between signal frequency and velocity has good linearity. So this velocimeter is suitable to provide velocity information for a vehicle self-contained inertial navigation system.