Neuromorphic Camera for Multi-Target Pointing Acquisition and Tracking in Free Space Optical Communication
Abstract
Pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking (PAT) in Free-Space Optical Communication (FSOC) applications must achieve both low jitter and a large Field of View (FoV) to support beacon acquisition and multi-target tracking. While conventional frame-based sensors provide the necessary angular coverage, their performance is limited by latency, available frame-rate, and motion blur. This work explores and demonstrates the application of an event-based vision sensor for PAT tasks in FSOC. The system employs a neuromorphic sensor that asynchronously records brightness changes (events) with microsecond-level temporal resolution. The main contribution of this paper is a comparative analysis of event-based tracking algorithms for the simultaneous acquisition and tracking of multiple optical beacons that operate directly on this asynchronous stream. The performance of these strategies is validated on an experimental dataset representing realistic operational conditions for dynamic High-Altitude Platform (HAP) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks. The analysis compares key metrics, such as tracking accuracy and processing latency, under various signal-to-background conditions.
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BibTeX
@misc{nardo2026neuromorphic,
title = {{Neuromorphic Camera for Multi-Target Pointing Acquisition and Tracking in Free Space Optical Communication}},
author = {Francesco Nardo and Nigitha Selvaraj and Klaus Schertler and Peter Krötz and Ricardo Barrios and Sebastian Houben and Sebastian Randel},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.05503},
eprint = {2611.05503},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05503},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Neuromorphic Camera for Multi-Target Pointing Acquisition and Tracking in Free Space Optical Communication
AU - Francesco Nardo
AU - Nigitha Selvaraj
AU - Klaus Schertler
AU - Peter Krötz
AU - Ricardo Barrios
AU - Sebastian Houben
AU - Sebastian Randel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.05503
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05503
AB - Pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking (PAT) in Free-Space Optical Communication (FSOC) applications must achieve both low jitter and a large Field of View (FoV) to support beacon acquisition and multi-target tracking. While conventional frame-based sensors provide the necessary angular coverage, their performance is limited by latency, available frame-rate, and motion blur. This work explores and demonstrates the application of an event-based vision sensor for PAT tasks in FSOC. The system employs a neuromorphic sensor that asynchronously records brightness changes (events) with microsecond-level temporal resolution. The main contribution of this paper is a comparative analysis of event-based tracking algorithms for the simultaneous acquisition and tracking of multiple optical beacons that operate directly on this asynchronous stream. The performance of these strategies is validated on an experimental dataset representing realistic operational conditions for dynamic High-Altitude Platform (HAP) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks. The analysis compares key metrics, such as tracking accuracy and processing latency, under various signal-to-background conditions.
ER -