Flexible and Cost-Efficient Auto-Alignment for Bidirectional Optical Wireless Communications

Optical wireless communication offers a promising solution for flexible high-capacity data transmission due to its immunity to electromagnetic interference. However, unlike fiber optic cables, achieving optimal performance in optical wireless links critically depends on precise alignment between the transmitter and receiver. This study introduces two prototype optical heads, composed of a visible beacon, standard Raspberry Pi camera, and computer vision algorithms to enable bidirectional receiver discovery and fine beam alignment. Using such low-cost, off-the-shelf equipment, we demonstrate that fully successful and reliable alignment can be achieved starting from any blind position within an area of 5 square meters for a link distance of 20 meters.