Small antenna positioning system design at Wright State University

Abstract

To inculcate electromagnetics engineering in the broader undergraduate experience at Wright State University, students of the Sensors and Signals Exploitation Lab designed a 5D antenna positioning system to support applied electromagnetic experiments. The team of students with mixed engineering concentrations designed a 500-dollar antenna positioner and instrumented it to work with a laboratory stepped-frequency radar and signal processing suite. We present the positioning system requirements, completed design. We also demonstrate its application to radar imaging as a way to highlight how electromagnetcs and antenna theory underly radar signal processing.