A Laser Spot Tracking Algorithm for Underwater Wireless Optical Communication Based on Image Processing

The APT for a laser spot underwater is one of the key technologies for underwater wireless laser communication. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for fast and accurate tracking of underwater moving target spot based on laser spot image captured by CCD camera, i.e., MASMS algorithm, which combines the classical Kalman filtering algorithm with ASMS algorithm to improve the loss of the target when the target moves too fast. The performance of MASMS is tested, including center position error of a laser spot, frame rate, precision plot, and success plot, and compared with the classical algorithms such as Mean-Shift, ASMS, STRUCK, and KCF, which are available in literature. It is shown by our simulating experiment that the performance of MASMS algorithm is better than that of mentioned above four existing algorithms except for the only frame rate, that is slightly lower than KCF and ASMS. Therefore, the MASMS algorithm can be applied to track underwater wireless laser communication signals in the future in order to enhance the effectiveness and reliability of communication.