ADAPTIVE AUTOMATIC CORRECTION IN OPTICAL DESIGN

An adaptive technique for optical design with computers is described Its distinctive features are compared with those of the well known damped least squares (DLS) method. The system of adaptive control ensures a particularly certain and rapid convergence, often of an order of magnitude quicker than the DLS method. The convergence is illustrated for a number of examples. The adaptive method enables the designer to learn the fundamental potentialities and limitations of a given optical system. © 1968 Optical Society of America.