Advanced Beam Control and Wave Slap Mitigation

The objective of this proposal is to leverage mature and developing technologies to address a complex beam pointing and acquisition in maritime environments with pointing and control algorithms to feed active motion and jitter mitigation. The solution utilizes expertise from a proven airborne laser communication, a developing high-power directed energy airborne relay system, and proven pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) algorithms for beam control, feedback, safety shutoff, etc.ÝThis proposal outlines a structured approach to the development of the ball beam director system, focusing on mechanical performance, control systems, and wave slap mitigation. The Phase 1 effort is divided into a base scope and an option scope, both of which aim to incrementally refine the system design and enhance concept maturity. Key goals include defining interfaces, allocating requirements, and conducting performance analyses to meet stringent system performance metrics.Soter Technology will employ an existing Soter optical system design to enable the relatively large aperture size compared to the ball, and to package additional imaging sensors within the ball. Additionally, Soter Technology will employ highly thermally stable optics and structures suitable for HEL systems to ensure long term system operation and stability. The beam director system will incorporate measures to counteract wave slap effects, ensuring stable operation under dynamic conditions. These measures include a fast-steering mirror (FSM) to address rapid corrections, inertial measurement units (IMUs) with accuracies and bandwidths to address the feedback control, and IMU controls that integrate advanced PAT algorithms for real-time stabilization.