Optimal and adaptive control of aero-optical wavefronts for adaptive optics

This paper compares two control methods to predict and correct aero-optical wavefronts derived from recent flight-test data. The first is an optimal linear time-invariant controller constructed from an identified state-space model of the turbulence flow. The second control method is an adaptive controller based on a recursive least-squares lattice filter. The performance of these control schemes versus classical integrator methods is investigated in an adaptive optics experiment that reproduces the aberrations from in-flight measurements of aero-optical turbulence. Experimental results show the improvement in wavefront correction achieved by both prediction methods. Altering the flow characteristics of the disturbance wavefront during the control process illustrates the ability of the adaptive controller to track changes in the aberration statistics.