Research progress of acquisition, pointing and tracking in optical wireless communication system

Optical wireless communication refers to the technology of transmitting information in free space using light waves as a carrier, which has the advantages of high bandwidth, low cost, and high security. The acquisition, pointing, and tracking (APT) system is the premise of establishing a wireless optical communication system. A simple, reliable, and dynamic APT system can overcome the impact of mechanical platform vibration and external environment changes on the wireless optical communication system. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct in-depth theoretical and experimental research on the APT system, so as to design a capture, aiming, and tracking method suitable for wireless optical communication. This paper analyzes the domestic and foreign research achievements in capturing, aiming, and tracking, and introduces the work done by Xi'an University of Technology in the field of automatic aiming. It mainly includes the progress of initial acquisition system, non-common visual axis control system, beam detection system, etc. At the same time, the field experiments of 1.3 km, 5.2 km, 10.2 km, and 100 km distance links are introduced to verify the effectiveness of the APT system. Finally, the development of APT in wireless optical communication is prospected.