Pointing Error Control of Underwater Wireless Optical Communication on Mobile Platform

This letter discusses pointing errors in underwater optical communication caused by environmental disturbances and uncertainties that cannot be well measured and controlled in previous optical alignment methods. The bore-sight and jitter effects are identified in the motion model of the mobile platform. We propose to use the sensor suite that includes a pressure sensor, super short baseline (SSBL) acoustic system, Doppler velocity log (DVL), and fiber optic gyro (FOG) to observe and estimate pointing errors during communication. The pointing errors updated by the particle filter can be shared with the pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) system and thruster system. The sea experiments reveal that the proposed method can measure pointing errors and limit error growth by maneuvering the mobile platform.