Through the MOABB project, DARPA researchers are committed to building a plane millimeter-level transmitter/receiver unit with a high fill factor aperture, non-mechanical beam control, and integrated amplification. DARPA scientists claim that free-space optical systems have huge potential for sensing, lighting, and communication. Micron wavelengths can achieve an angular resolution of 0.001 degrees.
The MOABB project attempts to use the development of integrated photonics to provide potential for high-speed, non-mechanical beam steering. Researchers believe that efficient laser pointer light sources, detectors, amplifiers and low-loss waveguides can be manufactured on a flat platform for high-power large apertures. The MOABB project is divided into three phases and started in 2015. At the start, the MOABB program is expected to last for five years and the total funding will reach 58 million US dollars.
The MOABB project aims to develop free space optical communication (FSO) equipment small enough to be installed on any device from drones to smartphones. Unlike physical wired networks that use optical fibers, free space optical communication uses light for communication. Free-space optical communication systems are composed of telescopes, green laser pointer, detectors and electronic equipment, so their size is often very large.
If the MOABB project is successful, free space optical communication equipment will be 100 times smaller in weight and size than traditionally manufactured systems, and energy consumption will be reduced to only 100 watts. Using the foundation developed in the first phase of the MOABB project, a LiDAR scanner that is smaller than a smartphone camera and has a detection range of 100 meters will be built.