Low-cost high performance antenna system for UAV-ground communication

低成本、轻重量的无人机系统已成为新闻采集、环境监测 将通信服务扩展到偏远地区，甚至包裹递送，以及许多其他新兴的 应用.无人机的正确操作取决于无人机和地面控制之间高度可靠的无线电链路。 这一环节除了发送连续的数据外，也是无人机的生命线。考虑到电源高度有限 可对无人机和小重量无人机进行搭载，性能、辐射方向图和辐射场都经过精心设计， 无人机和地面站天线的效率，对无线电的范围和质量有很大的影响 无人机和地面之间的传输。 拟议的项目将提供一个地面站和飞行的无人机之间的无线电链路的全面分析 收发器在此基础上，提出了一种满足SOC无人机项目使用需求的低成本天线系统 将被研究、设计和优化。本研究的一个主要重点是探讨可重构天线 结构，重量极轻，可以最大限度地向地面控制站辐射光束 (GCS)具有低成本/复杂性的波束控制网络和用于高质量视频传输的足够带宽。现有 由于常规波束形成的成本和复杂性，低成本的小型无人机不具有天线波束适应性 建筑极低功耗和简单的波束切换/可重构天线架构 为低成本的光束扫描技术应用于其他领域开辟了道路 低成本/复杂性和低功耗至关重要的大众市场应用。

Low-cost and light-weight UAV systems have become an attractive solution for newsgathering, environmental monitoring, extending communication services to remote areas, and even package delivery, among numerous other emerging applications. The proper operation of a UAV depends on a highly reliable radio link between the UAV and ground control. This link, in addition to sending continuous data, also serves as a life line to UAV. Considering highly limited power source available on UAV and small weight UAV can carry, the performance, carefully crafted radiation pattern, and radiation efficiency of the antennas on UAV and the ground station, have a huge impact on the range and the quality of the radio transmission between the UAV and ground. The proposed project will provide a comprehensive analysis of the radio link between a a ground station and a flying UAV transceiver. Based on this research, an optimal low-cost antenna system that satisfy operation needs of SOC UAV project will be investigated, designed, and optimized. A major focus in this research to explore the reconfigurable antenna structures, which are extremely lightweight and which can maximize radiation beam towards Ground Controller Station (GCS) with a low-cost/complexity beam control network and sufficient bandwidth for high quality video transmission. Existing low-cost small UAV's do not have antenna beam adaptability due to cost and complexity of the conventional beam-forming architectures. Extremely low-power consumption and simple beam-switching/reconfigurable antenna architecture investigated and developed in this research will open the way for applying low-cost beam-scanning technology to other mass market applications where low-cost/complexity and low-power consumption are essential.