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In recent years, optical wave propagation through strong atmospheric turbulence and adaptive optics compensation thereof has received much attention in literature and technical meetings. At the Air Force Institute of Technology, recent simulation-based efforts in strong turbulence compensation are expanding into laboratory experiments utilizing a versatile surrogate turbulence simulator and adaptive optics system. The system can switch between using two different wavefront sensors, a Shack-Hartmann and a self-referencing interferometer. Wavefront reconstruction takes place on field programmable gate arrays, operating at kilohertz frame rates. Further, the system is able to perform reconstruction and control in software for testing of advanced algorithms (at frame rates below 10 Hz). The entire package is compact enough for transportation to other laboratories and live test facilities. This paper describes the optical layout, architecture, and initial results of real-time operation.

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