ORCID

0009-0005-2251-148X

Year

2026

Season

Spring

Paper Type

Master's Thesis

College

College of Computing, Engineering & Construction

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Department

Engineering

NACO controlled Corporate Body

University of North Florida. School of Engineering

Committee Chairperson

Dr. Hemani Kaushal

Second Advisor

Dr. Touria El-Mezyani

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Third Advisor

Dr. Alan Harris

Department Chair

Dr. Alan Harris

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have revolutionized emergency response, disaster assessment, and search-and-rescue operations. However, their operational efficacy is fundamentally constrained by limited battery endurance and the susceptibility of traditional radio-frequency communication to disruption in adverse weather. To address these limitations, this thesis proposes and experimentally validates a novel architecture integrating Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication with Simultaneous Lightweight Information and Power Transfer (SLIPT). This system utilizes a split-beam configuration to concurrently enable high-bandwidth data transmission and optical energy harvesting to replenish the UAV's battery pack. The research was conducted in three progressive phases. Initially, system feasibility was established through rigorous optical simulations using Optisystem and MODTRAN. These simulations modeled power-splitting ratios, cloud attenuation, and analyzed key metrics, including Bit-Error-Rate (BER) and harvested energy across various altitudes to optimize the power distribution framework. To validate the communication link, a custom transmission module utilizing a 650nm laser with on-off keying (OOK) modulation up to 100 kHz was developed. A custom-designed, dual-chamber atmospheric turbulence generation system was designed. This design was validated via Ansys-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and fabricated to emulate diverse weather conditions. Inertial subrange measurements, validated by the Kolmogorov-Obukhov similarity law and Taylor's frozen eddy hypothesis. This confirmed the chamber's ability to accurately reproduce target refractive index structure parameters, scintillation index, and Fried parameter. This allowed for robust stress-testing of the FSO link under heavily controlled, experimentally derived deep-fading events. Finally, the energy harvesting module was optimized for integration. Monocrystalline silicon and gallium arsenide (GaAs) were identified as optimal photovoltaic (PV) substrates due to their superior absorptance profiles. To maximize energy yield, anti-reflective coatings (ARC), specifically Silicon Nitride (Si 3N4), were optimized using Open Filters 1.1.1 software to achieve maximum efficiency. The optimized coatings were deposited via sputtering, and their structural integrity and reflectivity were verified using a Keyence laser microscope and a Shimadzu UV3600 spectrophotometer, respectively. Physical validation of the complete SLIPT system demonstrated the practical viability of harvesting sufficient optical energy to offset the power budget of a commercial standard/small UAV. The results of this study provide a comprehensive, experimentally verified framework for deploying FSO-SLIPT systems to ensure prolonged, sustainable, and robust UAV operations in critical emergency scenarios.

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