Stabilization of a thermal camera at sea

Abstract: During, for example, search-and-rescue operations at sea, technical equipment like spotlights and thermal cameras are important aids. However, heave and sway affect the ship and make it harder for finding a person in distress. This thesis presents a way of stabilizing a thermal camera by controlling a stepper motor connected to it. Moreover, the thermal camera can only be turned upwards and downwards. The whole process was investigated to see what can and needs to be measured for stabilization at sea to work. With this knowledge, sensors had to be chosen to collect the necessary measurements. The measurements from the different sensors were merged together using a Kalman filter to give an estimation for the tilt and elevation of a ship, which was used for controlling the stepper motor. Moreover, the control of the stepper motor was done using PID control. The process was simulated in Simulink, making it possible to tune different parameters so that good performance was ensured based on assumed models. This was then implemented on the real system and tests were carried out to verify what was found during simulations. The result from this thesis is a stabilized thermal camera which helps an operator enormously in searching and finding objects at sea.