Pointing and Trajectory Tracking Control for Optical Wireless Communication

Abstract

Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technologies are of great importance in many indoor and outdoor applications. As the demand for capacity increases, OWC is considered an emerging alternative technology in the communication area. However, maintaining a controlled line-of-sight (LOS) link between transmitter and receiver is a significant challenge because the alignment angle required for trajectory tracking control is not directly measured and has to be estimated. 

In this talk, I will present our recent works on reducing the beam pointing error for improved free-space optical communication (FSO) link performance. Specifically, I will discuss a robust control strategy that reduces the beam alignment error under controlled weak turbulence conditions for FSO systems. Then, I will discuss localization and tracking control of a mobile target ship with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in underwater environment. The framework is designed using a hybrid acoustic-optical underwater communication to drive the AUV to the maximum achievable data rate angle. The acoustic link is used for non-line-of-sight localization, and the optical link is for line-of-sight transmission. I will conclude the talk by providing recent results on estimating the alignment angle through a novel estimation-based reference trajectory control algorithm for an LED-based optical communication model.

Brief Biography

Ibrahima N’Doye is a Research Scientist in Professor Taous-Meriem Laleg’s research group in CEMSE. He jointly received a PhD degree in Automatic Control from the Research Center of Automatic Control, University of Lorraine (CRAN-CNRS), Nancy, France, and a Ph.D. degree in Control Systems and Industrial Informatics from University Hassan II Ain Chock, Casablanca, Morocco, in 2011. He is currently a Research Scientist with the Electrical Engineering Department at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Faculty of Science, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. His main research interests are in the area of estimation and control systems engineering. He is a recipient of the IEEE Senior Member grade in 2020. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor for the Proceedings of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering (JSCE).

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