Development of a Low-Cost, Lightweight Hyperspectral Imaging System Based on a Polygon Mirror and Compact Spectrometers

Low-altitude hyperspectral observation systems using aerial observation with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have advantages over satellite systems with respect to frequency, accuracy, and spatial resolution. Although low-cost lightweight UAVs have become available in recent years, the current price ranges of lightweight pushbroom and snapshot hyperspectral sensors remain high. For sustainable operation of UAV-mounted hyperspectral sensing, the challenge in production has been shifted from the size and weight to the cost of the lightweight hyperspectral sensors. In this paper, we develop a low-cost, lightweight whiskbroom hyperspectral imaging system. The gross weight of the sensor is 1200 g. The spectral range of the 256-band spectrometer extends from 340 to 750 nm with a 14-nm spectral resolution. The viewing angle across the flight direction is controlled by the rotation of an eight-sided polygon mirror. When the exposure time, flight altitude, flight speed, and focal length of the optical lens are 3.2 ms, 10 m, 10 m/s, and 8 mm, respectively, then the estimated values of the swath and the area coverage per second are 13.4 m and 134.1m²/s, respectively. The spatial resolution is 0.97 (m) (flight direction)×0.46 (m) (scanning direction). In preliminary close-range measurements with a 3.2-ms exposure time per area and a 1224-ms rotation period of the polygon mirror, the reflected light from 12 areas of a printed checkered color pattern in the moving direction were measured. We found that the calculated reflectance based on the measurements is spatially consistent and spectrally accurate.