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Transcelestial Free Space Optical Communication

Team members

Juay Jing Min (EPD), Choo Yong Sheng (ESD), Lutfi Nur Hakim Bin Tajuddin (ESD), Caryl Beatrice Aragon Peneyra (ISTD), Lau Yu Hui (ISTD), Tan Jing Heng Darryl (ISTD)

Instructors:

Matthieu De Mari, Teo Tee Hui, Yue Mu

Writing Instructors:

Rashmi Kumar

Teaching Assistant:

Du Zongyang

In Collaboration With:

Transcelestial Logo

The Problem


Based in Singapore, Transcelestial provides internet connectivity solutions to customers all over the world. These customers have different climates compared to Singapore, making it difficult to predict how the Centauri would fare in their operating conditions.

To address this, Transcelestial offers a trial period (approx. 2 weeks) for customers to ensure the Centauri integrates seamlessly into their operations. This process can be COSTLY and TIME CONSUMING.

thus...

Transcelestial's Customer needs a high level understanding of the Centauri's performance under different operating conditions.

Transcelestial's Sales Team needs an efficient process of conveying the Centauri's performance to secure customers

To address the problem

Our team designed software and hardware to automate the data collection and testing of Centauri devices under different operating conditions. This would allow for potential customers to evaluate the Centauri's compatibility with their desired operating conditions.

System Architecture

The overall system architecture is as follows:

The system architecture depicts the different subsystems that make up the system for the testing service.

Hardware

The hardware consists of the Centauri devices, Ambient weather devices, Raspberry Pis and simulation jigs placed on the testbed.

Software

The software consists of the movement of data flow into Elasticsearch and into the Centauri Test Engine, which will be controlled by the testbed UI and is supported by MongoDB as its backend storage.

The project not only focuses on the individual hardware and software, but also the integration of both to allow for automated remote control of the hardware via the software.

User Process Flow

From creating tests to tracking the test results, the Testbed User Interface (UI) allows users to follow the progress of their scheduled test simulations from the comfort of their desk. Sporting an intuitive user interface, coupled with an authentication system, the Testbed UI is a handy and convenient tool for the Transcelestial engineers to carry out tests.

Users start at the login page, where authorized personnel may access the Centauri Test Engine.

Users can view and add scenarios to be stored into the database.

Users can add sequences of scenarios to be automatically scheduled.

Users can acess a timeline page for an overview of tests currently scheduled on each link.

Users can view the device performance in the form of time-series graphs.

Weather Condition Simulations

To test the Centauri on its ability to work in different weather conditions, we have to simulate these weather conditions by building hardware that can replicate those conditions. We have chosen to focus on vibration and scintillation as the two conditions to simulate.

Vibration Simulation


Vibrations can be caused by tremors or from strong winds that could sway the tall buildings.

The Eccentric Rotating Mass (ERM) motor creates a rotational force which will help create the necessary vibrational force for the system.


The vibration hardware is housed in a junction box is to protect the electrical components from weather conditions.

Vibration jig

Scintillation Simulation


Scintillations causes fluctuations in intensity and phase in the received signal due to variation in refractive index.

Centered around the Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) film, which has the ability to scatter light when an AC voltage is applied.


This replicates the condition of fluctuating intensity resulting from scintillation.

The PDLC film in action infront of the Centauri.

Impact of Project

Test Scheduling Lead Time

customer confidence

customer acquisition cost

Further Development

Automating and connecting hardware components to software.

Automating data collection from Centauris at the end of each test.

Special Thanks to Our Mentors

Our SUTD Professors and Writing Instructor

Our Transcelestial Mentors

FEEDBACK

TEAM MEMBERS

student Juay Jing Min Engineering Product Development
student Choo Yong Sheng Engineering Systems and Design
student Lutfi Nur Hakim Bin Tajuddin Engineering Systems and Design
student Caryl Beatrice Aragon Peneyra Information Systems Technology and Design
student Lau Yu Hui Information Systems Technology and Design
student Tan Jing Heng Darryl Information Systems Technology and Design

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