Shape and size design, preparation and test evaluation of color unit in visible light and infrared camouflage

This study presents a novel method for designing and preparing a visible light-infrared-compatible camouflage sample based on the shape, size of the visible band’s color unit and the infrared band’s material coatings. The coatings were prepared by using the cold spray method on 1 m × 1 m aluminum substrates with a color unit of the regular hexagonal sample (M1) and regular quadrilateral sample (M2). Then the color difference, the temperature difference and image salience value methods were used to analyze the effectiveness of camouflage samples through the real-scene tests. The results indicate that designed and prepared compatible camouflage samples are effective in their surrounding environment. Meanwhile, it can be concluded that M1 has high fusion with a background in visible and infrared bands compared to M2, M1 has 90.6% color similarity and only 0.8% temperature difference, the M2 has 85.4% color similarity and 1.6% temperature difference with the green background. These findings indicate that the cold spray method could compensate for conventional visible light camouflage design limitations. The combination of camouflage color unit design and visible/infrared material coating could be helpful in optical camouflage research. Furthermore, to improve the military equipment’s survival time on the battlefield.