Servo-control of binoculars’ lensusing MATLAB automatic Code Generation

Sammanfattning: Thales optronique SAS is a company specialized in the design of optronics equipment and missile electronics for air, naval or terrestrial forces. Among their products, the Infrared Cameras such as SOPHIE – for a soldier – or CATHERINE – for a vehicle – are crucial tools for target identification, location and tracking among other surveillance applications. Amid all the functions gathered in these cameras1, the system coping with the optical and electronic zoom is the thesis purpose. Previous works on the zoom system design involved the use of stepper-motors enabling a low cost of production and providing satisfactory results. However, if performances requirements tightened up – a more accurate system, a quicker zoom or a position feedback for instance –, the stepping technology would hit its limits. A new approach providing greater control performances with equivalent size and interfaces – for an easy integration – is required, thus, a DC-motors based system coupled with position feedback sensors is explored.The introduction details the IR cameras’ functionality and current technology: their limits and the alternative are exposed in the Problem statement and the thesis’ objective along with the methodology to complete it. A system description gives an insight of the zoom feature, especially regarding the hardware used and the setup. The third chapter is dedicated to explaining the model used for simulations. A model-based controller design relies on the previously introduced model and constitutes the fourth chapter: its choice is justified and its tuning is explained. It is followed by the whole program implementation on the microcontroller: Matlab Code Generation is introduced and used. Tests are done to validate the goals in the dedicated section, the last chapters discusses the results and their possible improvements. A conclusion goes over the previous chapters and puts them into perspective.