Toward a wireless optical communication link between two small unmanned aerial vehicles

Author

Last, M. ; Leibowitz, B.S. ; Cagdaser, B. ; Jog, A. ; Zhou, L. ; Boser, B. ; Pister, K.S.J.

Author_Institution

Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

3

fYear

2003

fDate

25-28 May 2003

Abstract

A communication system between two autonomous micro air vehicles is proposed. Laser communication offers advantages in range, power, and bandwidth when line of sight is available. Beamsteering is accomplished using gyro-stabilized MEMS micromirrors. A custom CMOS smart-pixel imager implements a 1 Mbps receiver, including analog front-end and variable-gain amplifier at each pixel. Algorithms are presented for initial link establishment and maintenance.

Keywords

CMOS image sensors; aircraft communication; beam steering; micromirrors; optical links; remotely operated vehicles; smart pixels; 1 Mbit/s; analog front-end; autonomous micro air vehicle; beamsteering transmitter; custom CMOS smart-pixel imager; gyro-stabilized MEMS micromirror; line-of-sight laser communication; optical receiver; unmanned aerial vehicle; variable-gain amplifier; wireless optical communication link; Bandwidth; Micromechanical devices; Micromirrors; Mobile robots; Optical amplifiers; Optical fiber communication; Power lasers; Remotely operated vehicles; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Wireless communication;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Circuits and Systems, 2003. ISCAS '03. Proceedings of the 2003 International Symposium on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7761-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISCAS.2003.1205173

Filename

1205173