Photonic Localization and Positioning using Multi-Tone Continuous-Wave Ranging Methodology

We propose and demonstrate autonomous photonics localization and navigation system that does not require any time clocks at the transmitter and the receiver. Experimentally we show that a remote receiver that is 2km away from the transmitter determines its relative location to the transmitter with a better 3cm standard deviation and successfully identifies 10cm incremental changes in distance without using time information. The proposed concept is based on Multi-Tone Continuous Wave ranging technology that uses a transmitter consisting of an amplitude-modulated CW laser by the phase-locked multiple RF tones. The receiver side consists of a heterodyne detection system with a free-running local oscillator laser and signal processing algorithms that eliminate phase noise and relative decoherence of two independently free-running lasers and identifies relative phase changes between RF tones and potential Doppler shifts The proposed technology is proven to be suitable for long-range localizations, autonomous navigations of aerial or ground-based vehicles such as rovers or drones for space missions, as well as helping to maintain inter-satellite navigation, and even aiding during the landing of a spacecraft. The proposed architecture has the ability to operate in the near and far-field by optimizing the optical power dynamics and RF tone selections and overcoming the laser phase-noise limitations.