Research on Photogrammetric Solution for Internal Weapons Separation Flight Testing

In response to the demand for accurate position and attitude measurement during internal weapons separation flight testing, we propose a photogrammetric solution based on high-speed imaging. To capture the high-speed visual data of the entire store separation process occurring within the constrained internal weapons bay, we integrated the high-speed camera array equipped with curved lenses onto the bulkhead of the bay. Then use a combination of advanced technologies to achieve several key functions. These technologies include the solving of camera extrinsic parameters combined with the uncertainty of airborne spatial reference points, the use of YOLOV8-based marker intelligent detection, the automatic extraction of crosshair center coordinates based on the edge gray gradient orthogonal iteration, and the application of multi-view non-overlapping photogrammetric measurement under the constraints of straight lines. These techniques enable the following capabilities: a step-by-step fast calibration of airborne high-speed cameras, the automatic extraction of sub-pixel coordinates of marker points on the surface of the store in a small field-of-view imaging, the dynamic correction of extrinsic parameters in the presence of jitter in the airborne high-speed cameras, and the measurement of the relative positions and attitudes of the separate store. The accuracy of the position solving error in this method has been confirmed through rigorous ground testing, demonstrating that it does not exceed 5mm. This level of accuracy satisfies the precision requirements for flight testing.