title: On-sky demonstration of optimal control for adaptive optics at Palomar Observatory.
abstract: High-order adaptive optics systems often suffer from significant computational latency, which ultimately limits the temporal error rejection bandwidth when classical controllers are employed. This Letter presents results from an on-sky, real-time implementation of an optimal controller on the PALM-3000 adaptive optics system at Palomar Observatory. The optimal controller is computed directly from open-loop wavefront measurements using a multichannel subspace system identification algorithm, and mitigates latency by explicitly predicting incident turbulence. Experimental results show a significant reduction in the residual wavefront error over the controlled spatial modes, illustrating the superior performance of the optimal control approach versus the nominal integral control architecture.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tesch
authors.forename: Tuan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Truong
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Burruss
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gibson