Evaluation of the estimation accuracy of polarization-based roll angle measurement

The orientation of remote objects can be easily measured optically and very accurately using optical technologies. In this paper, we address the accuracy of a roll angle estimation technique that is based on the estimation of the polarization of a retroreflected beam and is applied in a long-range measurement task. Over long transmission ranges, the optical power decreases significantly leading to severe SNR deterioration. As a result, the measurement accuracy decreases. In this study, the estimation is carried out using a maximum-likelihood estimator and its performance is evaluated using the analytical Cramer-Rao bound.