An Innovative Bifocal Metrology System based on projective techniques for Aerospace Applications

The Bifocal Metrology relates to an optical metrology system applicable to any spacecraft (S/C) which needs to track or point another S/C or when it is needed to measure the relative position/attitude, or to control the reciprocal position/attitude between two S/C in six degrees of freedom in a short, medium and far range by using only one sensor that covers fine and coarse accuracies. It is based on an innovative optical projective system embedded on one S/C and a target composed by three light sources (following isosceles triangle shape) mounted on the other one.