Abstract
In this paper, a new conformal array structure and beamforming technique are proposed to provide efficient communication performance for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and space vehicles. The proposed array is formed by conformally stacking cylindrical, conical, and concentric circular (CSC4) arrays which are all coaxially aligned with the same axis of the conformed body and with uniform interelement spacing. The array elements are then fed by a weighting vector that has an adaptive cosine tapered profile where the maximum amplitude coefficient is oriented with the mainlobe direction to improve the scanning capabilities of the array and increase the array effective area. In addition, for very large, conformed body structures such as space vehicles, a frontal mainlobe-oriented partial CSC4 array beamforming technique is proposed to efficiently utilize the large CSC4 structure, reduce the processing requirements for mainlobe electronic steering, and to provide very low sidelobe levels with reduced backlobe levels. Simulation results show that the proposed CSC4 design can provide wide scanning angles of up to angular range in the -direction with only change in the beamwidth, without increasing array size and with achievable sidelobe level of −45 dB and backlobe levels less than −10 dB.
Highlights
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and space vehicles are always subjected to continuous movements with changing direction and rotation, so, fixing antenna arrays on their body should be manipulated carefully to maintain continuous communication link availability during flight
Communications, the work done in [19] proposed conical conformal array at 9.8 GHz for point-to-point communications, while in [20], the cylindrical antenna arrays are combined with conical arrays to form “CYLCON” array using microstrip Yagi antennas to provide wide solid angle scanning
To achieve the goals mentioned in the previous section, this paper proposes a conformal stacked structure of three specific array configurations which are cylindrical, conical, and concentric circular (CSC4 ) arrays that fit UAV and space vehicle geometrical body structures
Summary
Antenna arrays are very essential for many communication systems, including wireless networks, mobile, satellite, radar, remote sensing, and many other applications [1,2,3]. Some applications require specific designs in which the antenna array should be fixed on the body structure, such as airborne systems, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), space shuttles, rockets, and even maybe on the surface of satellite fairings [4,5,6,7] Most of these structures have a tapered front shape which is almost configured as cylindrical with conical tips to improve the aerodynamic performance and reduce wind resistance. It is desired to reduce the secondary backlobe radiation of the array, reduce sidelobe levels, maintain a constant beamwidth over wide scanning angles, and provide fast weight calculation and processing These requirements are sought after for fast-moving bodies such as UAVs and space vehicles. The communication link of these two applications requires flexible adaptive electronic steering to avoid link loss due to body rotation
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