High-Precision Light Spot Position Detection in Low SNR Condition Based on Quadrant Detector

In free space optical communications, long-distance transmission leads to the attenuation of beacon light, where we adopt a quadrant detector (QD) to receive the weak signal. However, the background light interferes so strongly that the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of QD is at a low level, whi...

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Main Authors: Jiawei Yu, Qing Li, Hongwei Li, Qiang Wang, Guozhong Zhou, Dong He, Shaoxiong Xu, Yunxia Xia, Yongmei Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-03-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/7/1299
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author Jiawei Yu
Qing Li
Hongwei Li
Qiang Wang
Guozhong Zhou
Dong He
Shaoxiong Xu
Yunxia Xia
Yongmei Huang
author_facet Jiawei Yu
Qing Li
Hongwei Li
Qiang Wang
Guozhong Zhou
Dong He
Shaoxiong Xu
Yunxia Xia
Yongmei Huang
author_sort Jiawei Yu
collection DOAJ
description In free space optical communications, long-distance transmission leads to the attenuation of beacon light, where we adopt a quadrant detector (QD) to receive the weak signal. However, the background light interferes so strongly that the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of QD is at a low level, which causes a decrease in accuracy of the direct detection method. This requires finding a new light spot detection method, so an improved detection method is proposed. Because the dark current noise and the background light noise are both white noise, we adopt a Kalman filter to estimate the real output of four electric signals of QD. Unfortunately, running these through an amplifier introduces some direct current (DC) offsets into the signals. In order to balance the effect of the DC offsets, we consider using the modulation method, where we employ a sine signal to modulate the intensity of the beacon light at the transmitting end, after which we can give an inverse gain to move the center of signals to near zero to eliminate the DC offsets when we calculate the data. In Kalman filtering, we use the peak values of the signals in every period after the analog to digital converter (ADC) as the elements of the measurement matrix. Experimental results show that even when QD output SNR is about −10 dB, the detection root-mean-square errors decrease by 51.5% using the improved detection method compared with the direct detection method. Moreover, Kalman filtering does not require a large amount of data, which means it works efficiently, can reduce the cost of hardware resources, and is available for the real-time calculation of spot position.
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spelling doaj.art-464c6a4bd7844744aed790c2f9dbec522022-12-21T20:02:21ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172019-03-0197129910.3390/app9071299app9071299High-Precision Light Spot Position Detection in Low SNR Condition Based on Quadrant DetectorJiawei Yu0Qing Li1Hongwei Li2Qiang Wang3Guozhong Zhou4Dong He5Shaoxiong Xu6Yunxia Xia7Yongmei Huang8Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaInstitute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaInstitute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaInstitute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaInstitute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaInstitute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaInstitute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaInstitute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaInstitute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Guangdian Road, Chengdu 610209, ChinaIn free space optical communications, long-distance transmission leads to the attenuation of beacon light, where we adopt a quadrant detector (QD) to receive the weak signal. However, the background light interferes so strongly that the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of QD is at a low level, which causes a decrease in accuracy of the direct detection method. This requires finding a new light spot detection method, so an improved detection method is proposed. Because the dark current noise and the background light noise are both white noise, we adopt a Kalman filter to estimate the real output of four electric signals of QD. Unfortunately, running these through an amplifier introduces some direct current (DC) offsets into the signals. In order to balance the effect of the DC offsets, we consider using the modulation method, where we employ a sine signal to modulate the intensity of the beacon light at the transmitting end, after which we can give an inverse gain to move the center of signals to near zero to eliminate the DC offsets when we calculate the data. In Kalman filtering, we use the peak values of the signals in every period after the analog to digital converter (ADC) as the elements of the measurement matrix. Experimental results show that even when QD output SNR is about −10 dB, the detection root-mean-square errors decrease by 51.5% using the improved detection method compared with the direct detection method. Moreover, Kalman filtering does not require a large amount of data, which means it works efficiently, can reduce the cost of hardware resources, and is available for the real-time calculation of spot position.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/7/1299free space optical communicationquadrant detectorlight spot detectionKalman filterreal-time calculation
spellingShingle Jiawei Yu
Qing Li
Hongwei Li
Qiang Wang
Guozhong Zhou
Dong He
Shaoxiong Xu
Yunxia Xia
Yongmei Huang
High-Precision Light Spot Position Detection in Low SNR Condition Based on Quadrant Detector
Applied Sciences
free space optical communication
quadrant detector
light spot detection
Kalman filter
real-time calculation
title High-Precision Light Spot Position Detection in Low SNR Condition Based on Quadrant Detector
title_full High-Precision Light Spot Position Detection in Low SNR Condition Based on Quadrant Detector
title_fullStr High-Precision Light Spot Position Detection in Low SNR Condition Based on Quadrant Detector
title_full_unstemmed High-Precision Light Spot Position Detection in Low SNR Condition Based on Quadrant Detector
title_short High-Precision Light Spot Position Detection in Low SNR Condition Based on Quadrant Detector
title_sort high precision light spot position detection in low snr condition based on quadrant detector
topic free space optical communication
quadrant detector
light spot detection
Kalman filter
real-time calculation
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/7/1299
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