Optimisation of antenna arrays installed on non‐conductive unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract

This study presents the study of beamforming capabilities of arrays installed on a non‐conductive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The main purposes of this study are the application of a beamforming algorithm by including the airframe in the optimisations and the study of simplifications of the aircraft model, so as to allow performing full‐wave simulations, even though the UAV is much larger than the operating wavelength. To validate the simplified electromagnetic model, antenna arrays have been designed and installed onto the UAV. Radiation pattern measurements demonstrate that the proposed simplifications yielded very good radiation pattern predictions and can be used as guidelines for simulation of other kinds of non‐conductive aircrafts.

Multiple objective optimisation for antenna diversity on airborne platforms

“…An aircraft is a complex structure and in order to perform optimisation, the electromagnetic model should only include as many details as needed to accurately determine the EM properties of the installed antenna [2,18]. Figure 3 shows the elevation (side) RF radiation pattern cut of a ¼ λ monopole placed onto an Airbus 319 model.…”

Low-Cost Beamforming Concept for the Control of Radiation Patterns of Antenna Arrays Installed onto UAVs

“…Therefore, another approach for simulations needs to be taken into account. Analysis of a UAV composed of dielectric materials was presented in [ 16 ], where antenna arrays were designed to yield nearly uniform coverage in the yaw plane. Other recent contributions of the installed performance of antennas on aerial vehicles are presented in [ 17 , 18 ].…”

“…In this paper, a new architecture to use switchable beams is proposed. Although the same UAV is considered as in [ 16 ], operation frequency was reduced in order to reduce free-space loss, hence increasing the flight range from the controlling ground station. Additionally, the concept shown in this paper allows for switching the main beam depending on the relative location of the UAV from the ground station, so as to improve the operation gain of the antennas on the UAV in comparison to [ 16 ].…”

“…Although the same UAV is considered as in [ 16 ], operation frequency was reduced in order to reduce free-space loss, hence increasing the flight range from the controlling ground station. Additionally, the concept shown in this paper allows for switching the main beam depending on the relative location of the UAV from the ground station, so as to improve the operation gain of the antennas on the UAV in comparison to [ 16 ]. The main contribution of this work is to show that the proposed beamforming architecture is simple to implement and effective for the beam switching of arrays installed onto UAVs.…”

Síntese de Diagramas de Irradiação de Redes de Antenas Utilizando o Método de Colônia de Morcegos

“…A forma de interação entre as soluções possibilita ao método buscas local e global simultaneamente, impactando na rápida convergência para uma ótima solução. As técnicas GA e PSO foram aplicadas na otimização de antenas em [2], [3], em que os autores apresentam as vantagens no desempenho do PSO em comparação ao GA. Em [4], o projeto de uma rede de monopolos com distribuição uniforme de potência no plano azimutal e minimização dos lóbulos laterais é proposto para ser embarcado em um Veículo Aéreo Não-Tripulado (VANT), em que os coeficientes de excitação dos monopolos foram determinados a partir do PSO.…”