Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: A12-119

Description

To address the Armys need for an optical communication system that is suitable for the teleoperation of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to advance development of the Retro-transmitting Omni-Bidirectional On-the-move Laser-Illuminated Non-line-of-sight Optical Communication (ROBOLINC) system successfully developed and demonstrated to be feasible in Phase I. This system is based on non-line-of-sight diffused infrared light detection via a retro-transmitting omni-bidirectional transceiver consisting of a multiaperture superposition compound-eye sensor with a high-speed IR laser diode array. The system as originally proposed for long distance application consists of a Multispectral Omnidirectional Camera-Based Laser Interrogator (MOCLI) terminal on the operator control unit and a Retro-transmitting Omni-Bidirectional Transceiver (ROBIT) terminal on the unmanned vehicle. The innovations implemented in the system allow ROBOLINC to meet the Armys requirements on bandwidth, frame rate, range, day/night environment, SWaP, and on-the-move operation. In Phase II, POC plans to finalize the design and implement into a full prototype system which will be tested and demonstrated for controlling a robot in a realistic outdoor environment to show that ROBOLINC can directly address the Army current needs for two distinct CONOPS; EOD-type robot teleoperation, and vehicles-to-vehicles free-space optical communication in RF-jammed environments.