Hemispherical eye sensor in micro aerial vehicles using advanced pinhole imaging system

This paper addresses key issues regarding the feasibility of providing micro unmanned air vehicles (micro-UAVs) with a miniature hemispherical eye using the latest CMOS sensor technology. Key specifications of the visual system of such visually guided drones are low power consumption, adaptive resolution and sensitivity, packaging and manufacturing complexity, ultra-wide field-of-view (FOV), lightness and small overall size. We describe a compact pinhole imaging system that yields near hemispherical FOV, and we investigate its theoretical performance limits to ego- and visual acuity.