Patent ID: 6484114
Filing Date: 2002-11-19
Classification: G02B,H04B

Abstract:
In an optical system employing dithering based on dither references for use in control of a beam-steering mechanism that controls beam direction and location and which provides as output an optical signal, the optical signal yielding a measure of coupled power, a method for continuously calibrating parameters of a kinematics model of the beam-steering mechanism during operation of the beam-steering mechanism, the method comprising:detecting said measured coupled power; processing said measured coupled power according to a coupled power function to obtain a measured coupled power function; providing a set of mode functions describing the time histories of the partial derivatives of said coupled power function with respect to errors in model parameters; detecting multiplicative scale factors describing amplitude of said mode functions present in said measured coupled power function as a set of inferred errors in model parameters equal to said detected multiplicative scale factors; and altering said model parameters in said kinematics model using said inferred errors.