Design and analysis of a catadioptric panoramic optical system based on a stitched surface and a genetic algorithm

For catadioptric panoramic optical systems, a design method that uses a stitched surface (SS) for the carrier and genetic algorithms (GA) for system design control is proposed. The SS significantly increases design freedom for the reflective surface via segmented parameterization. GA collaboratively optimizes the parameters of each segment, achieving active control of the irradiance uniformity across different fields of view. The final design achieves a field of view of (35 ∘ −90 ∘ )×360 ∘ , focal length of 1.7 mm, F-number of 3.6, and image-plane irradiance uniformity >90%, demonstrating effectiveness in the head-unit design of catadioptric panoramic systems.