A weatherproof PTZ camera enclosure designed for a ground rover operating in Mojave Desert, built to read barcodes on the underside of solar panels at 2–4 meter distances. The enclosure houses a UAV-grade Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera and needed to survive extreme dust, heat, vibration, and outdoor UV exposure.
Before any real CAD work, I wanted to test optical clarity for different enclosure geometries. Since the main goal was near perfect optics through varied climates.
The initial concept used spherical acrylic domes, but real world testing across three dome geometries revealed unacceptable optical aberrations from manufacturing inconsistencies inherently present in the domes. I then tested different qualities of domes, however, cost became an inhibiting factor.
The design pivoted to a cuboidal flat-panel assembly using high-grade acrylic (92% transparency, UV-stabilized, 3-year outdoor rating) — validated through barcode readability tests successful at 4 meters and confirmed edge/reflection analysis in direct sunlight.
Having confirmed the flat panels work, real CAD work began to divise a method to bring all the panels together in the most optimum manner with regard to weatherproofing, assembly time, cost, and field access for maintenance.
Led this project in an engineer + PM capacity — end to end design, leading the testing protocol, selecting components, documenting the design pivot decision, and driving the verification roadmap covering waterproofing, dust ingress, condensation, and vibration dampening for the PTZ camera.
