Grating-Corner-Cube-Based Roll Angle Sensor

This paper presents a specifically designed grating-corner-cube sensor for precise roll angle measurements. Owing to the diffraction characteristics of the transmission grating and reflection characteristics of the corner cube, two spatially separated parallel beams are naturally constructed. Through differential detection of the positions of two parallel beams, we experimentally demonstrate the possibility of a precise roll angle measurement at a high refresh rate. A performance evaluation of the proposed technique indicates a stability of 0.46 arcsec over 5 min. Compared with a commercial autocollimator over a range of 500 arcsec, the residuals are maintained within +/- 2 arcsec with a standard deviation of 1.37 arcsec. Furthermore, a resolution of 0.8 arcsec can be achieved using the proposed method. The developed compact roll angle sensor has potential applications in academic and industrial fields.