Observations of atmospheric effects for FALCON laser communication system flight test

Fletcher, T. Matthew; Cunningham, James; Baber, Daniel; Wickholm, Dave; Goode, Timothy; Gaughan, Brian; Burgan, Stephen; Deck, Andrew; Young, David W.; Juarez, Juan C.; Sluz, Joseph E.; Cohen, Janette; Stallings, Patrick; Stadler, Brian

doi:10.1117/12.887407

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…When the aircraft is flying at high speed, the outer frame is subjected to wind resistance. 9 The pressure and velocity distributions of the pod in the high-speed airflow (1 Mach) are analysed. The calculated windward resistance force is approximately 900 N, for the first frequency mode of 83 Hz.…”

Section: Passive Damping Of the Pod And Its Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Passive damping and vibration test of airborne stable pods for power line inspection using helicopters

Cao

Zhang

et al. 2020

Measurement and Control

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An airborne optoelectronic stable pod is mounted on a helicopter by pylons. The pod suppresses the impact of strong vibration and large swaying of the aircraft to stabilize the optical axis of the camera and to produce high-definition images under dynamic conditions. First, a passive damping system comprising a mechanical turntable with two axes and four frames for a photoelectronic stable pod is designed. Then the pod’s vibration reduction performance is tested. Additional tests are performed on the vibration of the helicopter and the pylon under flight conditions during the actual power line inspection, test the stabilization precision and imaging effect of the pod under flight conditions. The test results are analysed in detail, and the pod’s stability performances are verified under airborne conditions. The stability precision of the pod is better than 30 μrad (1σ), and a pin of 3-mm diameter can be clearly shot during aircraft hovering. The vibration test shows the pylons do not amplify the vibration of the aircraft while meeting stiffness requirement.

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Section: Passive Damping Of the Pod And Its Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Passive damping and vibration test of airborne stable pods for power line inspection using helicopters

Cao

Zhang

et al. 2020

Measurement and Control

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“…The divergence angle of very narrow communication beams requires both communicating sides to maintain extremely high dynamic alignment accuracy. With the ultimate aim of realizing a global-scale laser communication for practical use, many significant achievements have been made in the past decades, such as the demonstration of links for building-to-building communication [3,4], airborne applications [5][6][7], inter-satellite applications [8,9], satellite-to-ground [10][11][12][13][14][15][16], and ship-to-ship communication [17][18][19]. However, currently, most of the experiments only involve space and ground communication links or short-distance communication between ships.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shipborne Acquisition, Tracking, and Pointing Experimental Verifications towards Satellite-to-Sea Laser Communication

Wang

Xiang

et al. 2019

Applied Sciences

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Acquisition, tracking, and pointing (ATP) is a key technology in free space laser communication that has a characteristically high precision. In this paper, we report the acquisition and tracking of low-Earth-orbit satellites using shipborne ATP and verify the feasibility of establishing optical links between laser communication satellites and ships in the future. In particular, we developed a shipborne ATP system for satellite-to-sea applications in laser communications. We also designed an acquisition strategy for satellite-to-sea laser communication. In addition, a method was proposed for improving shipborne ATP pointing error. We tracked some stars at sea, achieving a pointing accuracy of less than 180μrad.We then acquired and tracked some low-Earth-orbit satellites at sea, achieving a tracking accuracy of about 20μrad. The results achieved in this work experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of ATP in satellite-to-sea laser communications.

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“…An aircraft furnished with an array of sensors can act as a flexible reconnaissance platform, enabling it to continuously acquire information about the ground, sea, and free-space which can be disseminated to ground stations over high-speed links [1,2]. Also, an aircraft can act as a node in a communication network, functioning as a relay station to expand the coverage of terrestrial and ocean surface networks or to relay information between aerial and ground units.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Study on PAT System for Long-Distance Laser Communications Between Fixed-Wing Aircrafts

Lei

Zhang

2018

Photonic Sens

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Free-space laser communication is characterized by high communication speed, strong anti-jamming ability, high confidentiality, and flexible configuration. In this paper, a pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) system based on a two-stage (i.e., coarse and fine) composite tracking mechanism is proposed to solve the optical axis alignment problem, which is common in free-space laser communications. The acquisition probability of the PAT system is ensured by designing two tracking modules, a coarse tracking module which combines passive damping with active suppression and a fine tracking module based on an electromagnetic galvanometer. Both modules are combined by using a dynamic scanning mechanism based on the gyroscope signal. Finally, a free-space laser communication test with a long range and a high speed is conducted by two fixed-wing Y12 aircrafts equipped with the proposed PAT system. Experimental results show that the coarse tracking precision of the airborne PAT system is 10 μrad (1σ), and the fine tracking precision is 8 μrad (1σ) during flights which are much improved as compared with the indoor tests. This indicates that the system can achieve a high precision for PAT during high-speed and long-range laser communications in the free-space. This also verifies the tracking capability and the environmental adaptability of the proposed laser communication PAT system.

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Observations of atmospheric effects for FALCON laser communication system flight test

Cited by 10 publications

References 19 publications

Passive damping and vibration test of airborne stable pods for power line inspection using helicopters

Passive damping and vibration test of airborne stable pods for power line inspection using helicopters

Shipborne Acquisition, Tracking, and Pointing Experimental Verifications towards Satellite-to-Sea Laser Communication

Experimental Study on PAT System for Long-Distance Laser Communications Between Fixed-Wing Aircrafts

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