This gives excellent near-range behaviour because the strong light level reflected by near targets is attenuated by the poor beam overlap near to the sensor. In the far field, where echoes are weak, the overlap is exact. The fast vertical scan is realised through the linear movement of the ends of glass fibres located in the focal plane. The focal length of the optics of the transmitter and the receiver is 50 mm. The slower horizontal scan is performed by stepping a redirecting mirror in front of the optics.
Deal is controlled by a standard lap-top computer.
This was also used for testing the demonstrator at system and subsystem level. The computer displays range and intensity images in real-time and further statistical evaluations are performed by specially developed software modules. The sensor system was integrated in a test-bed located at Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH and extensively tested. Deal performed very well exceeded all essential requirements. The ease of portability of Deal may be seen in Figure 1.