Aerospace and Defense

Altitude measurement is an application that demands high performance from non-contact distance sensors.

Acuity laser rangefinders have been installed and used for the precise positioning of cranes during the aircraft engine hoisting process.

NASA-JSC used an AR3000 laser sensor as a laser altimeter to measure the altitude of the Morpheus Lander in flight. The laser has been one of the more reliable sensors on the lander.

As aerial vehicles become autonomous, sensors are needed to verify altitude above landing strips. Also, low-flying aircraft may use laser rangefinders to profile the grounds below.

UAV projects depend on sensors to provide spatial information for route planning and crash avoidance.

Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle projects depend on sensors to provide spatial information for route planning and crash avoidance. A developer of an unmanned airplane arrived at a dual-sensor system utilizing a customized AR3000 setup.

Project M was a proposed project to land an operational humanoid robot on the moon in 1000 days (M is the Roman numeral for 1000). As with most autonomous vehicle projects, the design of the NASA RR-1 Lander required many sensors to fully control its flight. Design engineers contacted Acuity for a solution to measure the altitude of their RR-1 Lander. 

To determine the strength of aircraft structures, components are mounted on tensile testing machines and loads are applied to measure the amount of forces aircraft structures are able to withstand. This is done in order to verify design loads and specifications of the aircraft.

The “wing up-bend test” is a test of the mechanical integrity of composite wings as they are displaced upwards. Hanging from the end of each wing is a laser distance sensor, mounted on a gimbal to ensure the laser would be pointed perpendicularly to the floor as the wing is bent upwards.