Date of Award

12-1991

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Randall N. Paschall, PhD

Abstract

This thesis proposes a linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control law for a ground-based deformable mirror adaptive optics system. The incoming image wavefront is distorted, primarily in phase, due to the turbulent effects of the earth's atmosphere. The adaptive optics system attempts to compensate for the distortion with a deformable mirror. A Hartman wavefront sensor measures the degree of distortion in the image wavefront. The measurements are input to a Kalman filter which estimates the system states. The state estimates are processed by a linear quadratic regulator which generates the appropriate control voltages to apply to the deformable mirror actuators. The dynamics model for the atmospheric phase distortion consists of 14 Zernike coefficient states; each modeled as a first-order linear time-invariant shaping filter driven by zero-mean white Gaussian noise. The dynamics of the deformable mirror are also model as 14 Zernike coefficients with first-order deterministic dynamics. A significant reduction in total wavefront phase distortion is achieved in the presence of time-delayed measurements. Wavefront sensor sampling rate is the major factor limiting system performance. The Multimode Simulation for Optimal Filter Evaluation (MSOFE) software is the performance evaluation tool of choice for this research.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GE-ENG-91D-03

DTIC Accession Number

ADA243623

Comments

The author's Vita page is omitted.

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