First results of an on-line adaptive optics system with atmospheric wavefront sensing by an artificial neural network

Abstract

The first results are reported of an adaptive optics system operating on-line at the telescope with the wavefront aberration sensed by a trained artificial neural network. Star images were formed at 2.2 microns by two coherently phased apertures of the Multiple Mirror Telescope and analyzed by the neural net. The net derives wavefront parameters in a few milliseconds, and the system performance is fast enough that the aberration is nearly frozen during the time needed to make a correction. With the servo loop in operation, the corrected image shows significant power at the diffraction limit of 0.1 arcsec.