Minimum variance control structure for adaptive optics systems

This paper shows that the minimum variance adaptive optics controller under nearly ideal conditions is the integral controller used in adaptive optics systems. The inputs to the controller dynamics are obtained from a MAP reconstructor that uses the estimation error covariance of the wavefront error. The conditions assumed to obtain this controller are: isotropic first-order (but non-stationary) temporal atmospheric aberrations; no loop delay; and no deformable mirror dynamics.