Colleagues:

One of the challenges for a mechanical engineer is to determine the dominant drivers of bad behavior in complex systems.  The behavior may be observed during service, in environmental tests or system analyses.

In optical systems AEH segregates the effects of each degree of freedom (Tx, Ty, Tz, Rx, Ry, Rz) of each optical element (1, 2, 3, …, detector) and plots the cumulative sum which, in the case below, exposes the major offending elements to be 1 and 5 (see chart).  The engineer may then objectively recommend structural design changes that will stabilize the offending optical elements and improve the optical performance of the structure.

I’ll be presenting the details of this approach in a paper during SPIE’s Optics+Photonics Symposium in San Diego this August.  I hope to see you all there.

In the meantime, if you have questions just give me a call.  I’ll be here.

Happy St. Patty’s Day.

N’Blarney ‘ere, b’Gorah!

Al H.
3-9-15