B. Cagdaser, B.S. Leibowitz, M. Last, K. Ramanathan, B.E. Boser, and K.S.J. Pister (USA)
Free space optical communication, gyroscope drift, system architecture.
We propose the use of free-space optical communication for information transmission between small airplanes <1m wing span. The transmitter directs a focused laser beam (~ 1mrad full-width-half-max, FWHM) to the receiver using a 2 degree-of-freedom (DOF) MEMS mirror for pointing. Gyroscopes are used to monitor and compensate for short-term motion of the transmitter. Periodic dithering corrects gyroscope drift and tracks the motion of the receiver. A 1 DOF prototype with commercially available mirrors and gyroscopes shows that the proposed algorithms use less than 4 percent of the available communication bandwidth.
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