Modulation transfer function in seeker camera limits resulting from missile flutter caused by aerodynamic force

The imaging quality of seeker in flight mode has been evaluated through analyzing the effects of missile flutter on optical modulation transfer function (MTF) of the optical system. Firstly the data of transverse vibration has been processed to eliminate the trend term caused by the trajectory, then obtained the displacement with two times trapezoidal integration. For the side rotation, the high frequency noise interference in the data has been filtered by using five-point moving average method. Took this model as the quivering rule between the object and the image, and then analyzed the effects of the transverse vibration and the side rotation on imaging quality through MTF. By calculation, the r.m.s value of the image motion caused by missile transverse vibration is 0.026mm, and the side rotation angle is 0.0044 °. Through the establishment of two modulation transfer functions (MTF) of image random vibration and linear vibration, the results show that the image quality had declined, and the effect of transverse vibration on image quality is obvious. Through improving the rigidity of the missile and selection of small focal length optical system and shorten the time of exposure can improve the imaging quality of the seeker.