To compensate for disturbances in an aircraft’s forward flight and variations in its attitude and angular velocity in the imaging process of photoelectric imaging system, a method of image motion compensation using a fast steering mirror was put forward. First, the working sequence of the image motion compensation system was designed. The position of the fast steering mirror is established by increasing the oblique wave to allow the fast steering mirror to move at the desired speed and compensate for the image motion speed. Then, a mathematical model of the fast steering mirror was established. A linear extended-state observer is designed to estimate the disturbance in real-time, and disturbance compensation is generated to offset the disturbance. Finally, a step response experiment and a tracking experiment were performed to test the characteristics. The step response curve shows that the system’s stable time is 1.8 ms. The tracking characteristic is determined by a given scan curve. The fast steering mirror can satisfy the requirement for a high-speed and highly precise tracking system. It improves the system’s interference rejection performance and reduces the difficulty of controller design.

To improve the control accuracy of optoelectronic imaging equipment, the factors that affect the accuracy of the optoelectronic axis pointing are analyzed. Following Snell’s law, the kinematic coupling equation of the line-of-sight (LOS) angle based on the fast steering mirror (FSM) is established. The calibration method of the FSM system is designed according to the obtained motion characteristics, and a nonlinear correction method is designed to decouple the LOS equation. For a two-axis fast mirror with a stroke of ±20  mrad, the LOS pointing error is <1  μrad when the incident angle is 45 deg, which equates to an improvement of at least 78.9 times compared with linear correction methods. The nonlinear correction method is verified by practical experiments. The method provides a theoretical basis for generating position instructions and thus enables a precise FSM-based pointing system.