Publication

Abstract : Retroreflectors are commonplace components in measurement tools used in ranging, communication, sensing, and tracking. This work proposes a novel back surface design that can enhance the field of view of standard retroreflectors while retroreflecting through a pupil. Conventional methods optimize the retroreflector itself to enhance the field of view; here, the geometric arrangement of the retroreflecting planes in a polyhedral back surface, or the radius and height of a sectioned spherical backplane, is optimized to increase the field of view. The work theoretically analyses the polyhedral and spherical sections used in the backplane and derives design constraints. The designed structures were then fabricated by 3D printing and tested using an optical characterization setup. The measured photocurrent values with 95% confidence interval error bars, with no normalization, are provided along with detailed system specifications at the source, aperture, and detector ends to ensure traceability. The results showed 280% enhancement in the field of view while using the spherical section as the back plane and 214% enhancement in the field of view for the polyhedral section as the back plane, compared to the bare tape used as the retroreflecting surface. The polyhedral section showed higher peak retroreflectivity compared to the spherical section, but it is 6.44 times heavier. The proposed design formulae and structures demonstrate low-cost, wide-field-of-view, angular-misalignment-tolerant retroreflective targets that meet various size, retroreflectivity, and field-of-view constraints of different ranging, communication, sensing, and tracking systems.