Communication antenas for UAVs

Abstract

Over the past decades, particularly the last, the use of unmanned aerial platforms known as Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) by the military has played a key role in the conduct of operations, whether they be at a military or civilian level. The Portuguese Air Force similar to what happens with other NATO counterparts is developing a project called "Project for Research and Technology in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" (PIVANT) with the aim of providing the Portuguese Air Force with the ability of exploitation of these unmanned aerial vehicles, having already developed some UAV platforms running reconnaissance and surveillance missions over continental and maritime Portuguese territory. The need to communicate or improve communication with these platforms has led to the proposal research, whose goal is to design an antenna that enables improved efficiency and scope of the downlink between the UAV and the ground station. In this regard an Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array antenna radiator (ESPAR) will be designed and simulated. This antenna allows the variation of the direction of maximum gain in azimuth, which will give the operator the possibility to choose the intended direction of radiation. The antenna will be designed and simulated using the CST MWS program, to operate in the band of 1.33 GHz. After this stage, the antenna will be constructed and implemented in the UAV to carry out tests.