High-speed measurement of nozzle swing angle of rocket engine based on monocular vision

A nozzle angle measurement system based on monocular vision is proposed to achieve high-speed and non-contact angle measurement of rocket engine nozzle. The measurement system consists of two illumination sources, a lens, a target board with spots, a high-speed camera, an image acquisition card and a PC. A target board with spots was fixed on the end of rocket engine nozzle. The image of the target board moved along with the rocket engine nozzle swing was captured by a high-speed camera and transferred to the PC by an image acquisition card. Then a data processing algorithm was utilized to acquire the swing angle of the engine nozzle. Experiment shows that the accuracy of swing angle measurement was 0.2° and the measurement frequency was up to 500Hz.