Abstract: The contradiction between the field of view (FOV) and the spatial resolution (operating range) of the thermal imaging system is difficult to solve in the conventional imaging mode. Multi-aperture imaging technology is mainly divided into low overlapping rate, high overlapping rate and moderate partial overlapping imaging mode. In this paper, a theory of partially overlapped FOV bionic thermal imaging was studied. Four sets of infrared objective lens and infrared IRFPA cores were used to form a 4-aperture distributed thermal imaging system with central variable resolution. The "union" FOV of each sub-aperture constituted a large FOV for the system, and the "intersection" FOV of each sub-aperture, especially the central overlapped FOV, had super-resolution capability, thus forming a spatially variable resolution visual mode, which could alleviate the traditional single aperture thermal imaging problem. The overlapped field of view could be used to construct 4-eye and 2-eye stereo imaging for near-field target scene. Through polarizers on the sub-apertures, the central FOV could form a fully polarized thermal imaging mode. The detectors on the diagonal with LW or MW infrared focal plane detectors respectively could form a dual-color thermal imaging mode. Theoretical analysis shows that this bionic thermal imaging system with multi-aperture distributed and partially overlapped FOV has the characteristics of bionic intelligence, which can intelligently observe the interested targets, improve the target detection and recognition capabilities in complex background conditions and has extensive application prospects.