Development of Fine Tracking Unit for Hybrid ATP Mechanism in Free-space Optical Communication

In this paper, a fine tracking unit has been developed for the hybrid ATP mechanism used in the free-space optical communication system and its performance on the test setup has been demonstrated. A CMOS-based camera is used to detect and track the beacon laser sent from the remote FSO communication terminal. Beacon laser's alignment error is detected by image processing. A fine tracking controller was designed with the method of Ziegler Nichols PID controller gain adjustment. The performance results of the designed controller are examined under high frequency disturbance.