Adaptive Controls for Aero-Optics Compensation

MZA has teamed with Prof. Steve Gibson of UCLA to propose the development of adaptive wavefront reconstruction and jitter control techniques for the robust, high-bandwidth compensation of aero-optical effects. Through his work with AFRL, HEL JTO, and AFOSR, Prof. Gibson is on the forefront of adaptive control applied to atmospheric turbulence compensation. High-fidelity wave-optics simulations have shown that adaptive control techniques can provide a factor of two increase in effective closed-loop bandwidth over the standard atmospheric turbulence control technique without having to increase sampling frequency of the wavefront sensor (WFS). The nature of the aero-optic disturbance leads us to believe that the aero-optic disturbance is an ideal candidate for adaptive compensation. In this proposal, we lay out a plan to tailor adaptive control techniques to the aero-optics problem and to design an effective demonstration of the resulting technology.