opticalMeritFunction

R2026b

Optical merit function

Since R2026b

Description

Add-On Required: This feature requires the Optical Design and Simulation Library for Image Processing Toolbox add-on.

An opticalMeritFunction object combines optical performance metrics into a single weighted scalar score for use in optimization and tolerance analysis.

Creation

Syntax

meritFcn = opticalMeritFunction

Description

meritFcn = opticalMeritFunction creates an empty merit function with no metrics. Add metrics using the object functions.

Properties

Metrics — Metric objects

1-by-n array of Metric objects

Metric objects, specified as a 1-by-n array of Metric objects.

Weights — Metric weights

1-by-n positive numeric vector

Metric weights, specified as a 1-by-n positive numeric vector. The object normalizes weights to sum up to 1 when computing the combined merit score. The combined merit score is the mean of the absolute residual scores weighted by the square roots of the weights.

MetricsTable — Summary table of metrics

Read-only: table

This property is read-only.

Summary table of metrics, represented as a table with these columns: Name, Target, and Weight. The columns correspond to the properties of the metric objects added to the merit function, with each row representing those properties for a single metric object.

Object Functions

addSpot	Add spot RMS metric to merit function
addWavefrontPeakToValley	Add peak‑to‑valley wavefront error metric to merit function
addWavefrontRMS	Add RMS wavefront error metric to merit function
addCustomMetric	Add custom metric to merit function
evaluate	Evaluate merit function

Examples

Evaluate Optical Merit Function for Optical System

Import an optical system into the workspace.

opsys = zmximport("PhotographicLens.zmx");

Create an empty optical merit function.

meritFcn = opticalMeritFunction;

Add a spot RMS metric to the merit function.

meritFcn = addSpot(meritFcn);

Add a peak‑to‑valley wavefront error metric to the merit function.

meritFcn = addWavefrontPeakToValley(meritFcn);

Add an RMS wavefront error metric with a target RMS wavefront range of 0 to 0.2 waves to the merit function.

meritFcn = addWavefrontRMS(meritFcn,Target=[0 0.1]);

Specify weights for the metrics in the merit function.

meritFcn.Weights = [3 7 5];

Inspect the merit function.

meritFcn

meritFcn = 
  opticalMeritFunction with properties:

         Metrics: [1×3 optics.metric.Metric]
         Weights: [3 7 5]
    MetricsTable: [3×3 table]

meritFcn.Metrics

ans = 1×3 heterogeneous Metric (SpotRMS, WavefrontPeakToValley, WavefrontRMS) array with properties:
    Name
    Target

meritFcn.Weights

ans = 1×3

     3     7     5

meritFcn.MetricsTable

ans = 3×3 table
                    Name                Target     Weight
         __________________________    ________    ______

    1    "Spot"                        0      0      3   
    2    "Wavefront Peak To Valley"    0      0      7   
    3    "Wavefront RMS"               0    0.1      5   

Evaluate the merit function for the optical system.

[score,rawMetricValues] = evaluate(meritFcn,opsys)

score = 
0.6514

rawMetricValues = 1×3

    0.0076    0.7206    0.1410

Version History

Introduced in R2026b