Fast Steering Mirror Control Using Embedded Self-Learning Fuzzy Controller for Free Space Optical Communication

Coarse and Fine tracking in free space laser communication is very crucial. This paper presents architecture for laser beam acquisition, tracking and pointing mechanism. The centroid of the received image beam is calculated and then error is computed using reference position. Embedded self-learning fuzzy controller (SLFC) is used to drive the fast steering mirror mechanism to point the laser beam on receiver detector. The SLFC is embedded in hardware using Arduino development board. The performance of the SLFC is compared with the standard PID control. It is shown that the proposed architecture successfully track the laser beam and the SLFC shows the robustness against model uncertainties and reject disturbances.