The pointing and tracking performance of laser beams in free space optical communi-cation (FSOC) systems and other precision laser systems is severely limited by beam jitter. This research proposes an adaptive control method to suppress beam jitter by adjusting the deflection angle of the beam by controlling the fast steering mirror (FSM) driven by piezoelectric ceramics. In order to verify the effectiveness of the control method, we have established an experimental platform. First, the internal controller of the FSM is adjusted to an approximately linear system, aiming to turn the input and output control signals into a linear relationship. Based on the adaptive filter, a filtered-x variable step-size normalized least mean square (FxVSNLMS) algorithm is proposed. To further improve the robustness of the controller, a Proportion Integral Differential (PID) controller and an adaptive controller which work in parallel are then added to the control loop. Finally, experimental results are provided and compare with the traditional controller and other adaptive control methods. Experimental results show that for more complex narrow-band and broad-band mixed beam disturbances, the control scheme developed in this research is significantly improved. This conclusion has also been verified on the ground experimental platform of FSOC. © 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement