High performance platforms for beam projection and adaptive imaging applications
Date
2016
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Mitigating atmospheric turbulence effects in long-range real-time applications such as imaging and laser beam projections requires efficient algorithms coupled with high performance platforms. Such long distance applications include remote power delivery, free-space optical communications, remote reconnaissance, surveillance, target identification, target tracking, and biometrics. Therefore, these algorithms need to be optimized and tuned for the specific application needs for dynamically changing environments. Current off-the-shelf systems are limited in performance, control channels, and flexibility. In this dissertation, to enhance this algorithm development and optimization process and to meet the performance needs of these applications, two separate platforms coupled with high-speed electronics and novel frameworks have been developed. ☐ A high performance imaging platform is developed for designing and implementing atmospheric turbulence mitigation algorithms and testing them in real-time on-field experiments. A real-time implementation of the Lucky-region fusion (LRF) technique, a synthetic imaging technique in enhancing the quality of images distorted by atmospheric turbulence using the platform is demonstrated with high frame rates over 100 FPS. ☐ An innovative, scalable and versatile platform is developed for closed-loop controlling of fiber laser phased-arrays. The controller platform consists of two complementary parts. The first part is an analysis and simulation software framework that is used for rapid algorithm development for blind optimization. The second part is a real-time hardware engine that is capable of controlling a large number of array elements and run the optimized algorithms at high speeds for field testing. The controller platform is then tested by utilizing a multi-channel optimization algorithm called Stochastic Parallel Gradient Descent (SPGD) for phase-locking. Simulation and hardware based experimental results are presented, and significant controller speed up to 650 kHz multi-channel update rate is achieved.
Description
Keywords
Beam projection, Long range imaging, Platform design