A multi stage pointing acquisition and tracking (PAT) control system approach for air to air laser communications

Author

Borrello, Mike

Author_Institution

Trex Enterprises, San Diego, CA, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

8-10 June 2005

Firstpage

3975

Abstract

This paper discusses a multi staged gimbal system used on the Recce Intel Laser Crosslink (RILC) system developed for research by Trex Enterprises. Although a complete description of the RILC system has been published in Feldman and Gill (1998) and Arnold et al. (1998), that describe the optical and communications components, this paper focuses, in greater detail, on the control systems for RILC. An overview of the RILC system is provided and controls for each subsystem are described. Finally, results of pointing and tracking from actual field testing over a 50 km test range are presented.

Keywords

optical communication; optical links; optical transmitters; pointing systems; semiconductor lasers; tracking; PAT control system; Recce Intel Laser Crosslink system; air-to-air laser communication; coarse track loops; fine track loops; multi stage pointing acquisition; multi stage pointing tracking; multi staged PAT controls; Aircraft navigation; Aircraft propulsion; Communication system control; Control systems; Dynamic range; Inertial navigation; Laser stability; Optical control; Sensor systems; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

American Control Conference, 2005. Proceedings of the 2005

ISSN

0743-1619

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9098-9

Electronic_ISBN

0743-1619

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ACC.2005.1470598

Filename

1470598