Distributed Antenna in Drone Swarms: A Feasibility Study

Harmer, S. W. and De Novi, G. (2023) Distributed Antenna in Drone Swarms: A Feasibility Study. Drones, 7 (2). p. 126. ISSN 2504-446X

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Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles offer a versatile platform for the realization of phased array antenna systems, enabling multiple antenna elements to be distributed spatially in an agile, flexible, and cost-effective manner. Deploying individual antenna elements on single drones and using a swarm of such drones to create an antenna array has the potential to be a disruptive technology. Antenna directivity is limited by the physical aperture size as compared to the wavelength of the radiation being transmitted/received, with electrically larger antennas giving a higher directivity at the cost of an increased size and weight. The authors presented a brief feasibility study using a simple mathematical model implemented in software to explore the predicted performance of the novel UAV deployed antenna array, the limitations of such a system, and the potential applications where such a capability would be beneficial. The authors concluded that it is possible to achieve a suitably coherent superposition of electromagnetic radiation at frequencies of ~1 GHz and lower with current global positioning technologies which offer centimeter scale positioning accuracy and with current drone positioning systems used to control drone swarms.

Publication Type: Articles
Additional Information: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Uncontrolled Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science Applications, Aerospace Engineering, Information Systems, Control and Systems Engineering, drone swarming; UAV; remote sensing; synthetic aperture; phased array; antenna; RADAR
Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General)
T Technology > TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
Divisions: Academic Areas > Department of Engineering, Computing and Design > Electrical Engineering
Related URLs:
SWORD Depositor: Publications Router Jisc
Depositing User: Publications Router Jisc
Date Deposited: 21 Feb 2023 17:01
Last Modified: 21 Feb 2023 17:01
URI: https://eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/6721

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