Sridhar Lakshmanan
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept., University of Michigan-Dearborn
Freespace Optical Communications Using Existing Luminaires and Related Applications
Sridhar Lakshmanan · Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept., University of Michigan-Dearborn
This talk will explore the use of existing luminaires - flashlights, vehicle headlights and taillights, infrared blackout lights, etc. - to effect wireless point-to-point communications. Current capability is a complete physical layer supporting ~40 kbps data rate in uncontrolled outdoor environments from a line-of-sight distance of 700 ft. The talk will conclude presenting some extensions of this capability to non-line-of-sight scenarios and 100X increase in data rates.
About the speaker
Sridhar Lakshmanan is an Educator, Researcher, Mentor and Entrepreneur. He is on the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Michigan – Dearborn. His expertise lies in intelligent systems: autonomous-connected vehicles, robots, intelligent transportation systems, and smart cities. He is a recipient of the Horace Rackham Faculty Fellowship, and has won many awards for his research at the University: His publications on automotive radar won the 2001 Best Paper Award from the IEEE Vehicular Electronics Society; On semi-truck platooning won the 2019 GVSETS Conference Best Paper Award from NDIA; and On lightweight transport robot the 2021 GVSETS Conference Best Paper Award from NDIA. He has served as a Project Director and Principal Investigator on a number of grants and contracts from various U.S. Government agencies: Depts. Defense, Transportation, Energy, and NSF; Defense Contractors: SAIC and General Dynamics; and Commercial Automotive Companies: Ford, GM, Delphi/Aptiv, ZF/TRW, Hella, Osram, Clarience and GAA. Sridhar has been a mentor and advisor to a dozen startups, and his own research at UM has resulted in three different spin-off companies. Finally, Sridhar’s estimates on electrical generation, transmission and distribution assets have been used in the City of Detroit’s historic bankruptcy filings in federal courts, and he has also been instrumental in the system-wide LED replacements of the City of Detroit’s and City of Memphis’ streetlights. Sridhar got his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in 1991.