Design and Construction of an Optical Telemetry System

Edwards Air Force Base Engineering, 2005-06

Liaison(s): Nathan Cook, Ronald Streich
Advisor(s): Erik Spjut
Students(s): Raymond Ryckman (TL), Brian Kirkpatrick (S), Lindsay Muth (F), Chris Prounh, Clarence Rowland (S), Victor Wang (F), Elizabeth Winton

The Edwards Air Force Base Clinic team designed, built, and tested a prototype for an optical communication link from a dynamic platform to a ground receiving system. The system transmits data to a moving ground vehicle at least one mile away using an IR laser. The data will be sent at 100 kilobits per second with less than one corrupted bit per 100,000 bits. The project will be carried on next year for use with aircraft.