The Study of an Automatic Tracking and Pointing Method and the Regarding System for Facing Two Antennas

Abstract

The existing mobile antenna networks in the military use have been operated by the manual pointing between two antennas. The work presented here describes the study of ATPC (Automatic Tracking and Pointing Control) system between facing antennas and the related tracking and pointing performances. This system is able to automatically track the maximum RSSI(Received Signal Strength Indication) value from the source's RF(Radio Frequency) signal and then control for maintaining the LOS(Line of Sight) between two antennas. The system has three major units; the driving unit consisting of motors, harmonic drives and encoders, the sensor unit with a GPS(Global Positioning System) and AHRS(Attitude and Heading Reference System) and the control unit regulating all the tracking and pointing events. By using PI(Proportional and Integral) controller, this system is able to properly track and point the other antenna under the external disturbance like the wind load. Both the simulation and the experimental works have been successively carried out to prove the performances of the system.