Swarm intelligence for atmospheric compensation in free space optical communication—Modified shuffled frog leaping algorithm

•A sensorless adaptive optical system is a promising in a manner in free space optical communication.•Swarm intelligence is an arisen control technology in sensorless adaptive optics.•Modified shuffled frog leaping algorithm improves the performance in the free space optical system.

A conventional adaptive optics (AO) system is widely used to compensate atmospheric turbulence in free space optical (FSO) communication systems, but wavefront measurements based on phase-conjugation principle are not desired under strong scintillation circumstances. In this study we propose a novel swarm intelligence optimization algorithm, which is called modified shuffled frog leaping algorithm (MSFL), to compensate the wavefront aberration. Simulation and experiments results show that MSFL algorithm performs well in the atmospheric compensation and it can increase the coupling efficiency in receiver terminal and significantly improve the performance of the FSO communication systems.