Control, Filtering and System Identification for High Energy Lasers and Laser Communications

This research developed new methods for high-performance control of laser beams in high energy laser weapons and laser communications. These methods achieve optical wavefront correction, laser beam pointing and target tracking with precision levels significantly beyond those achievable by existing methods for beam control, thereby increasing the bandwidths and target distances for which beam control systems perform successfully, and expanding the classes of feasible applications. The research provided the basic theoretical analysis, algorithm development and fundamental experimental research supporting UCLA's more applied multi-disciplinary efforts on control of laser beams. UCLA's research on control of laser beams can improve the performance of directed-energy weapons such as the airborne tactical laser and the airborne laser, as well as laser communications systems used in many Air Force systems. The research employed methods of adaptive, optimal and robust control and filtering, as well as system identification.