Direction-Finding Results for a Vector Sensor Antenna on a Small UAV

Author

Appadwedula, Swaroop ; Keller, Catherine M.

Author_Institution

Lincoln Lab., MIT, Lexington, MA

fYear

2006

fDate

12-14 July 2006

Firstpage

74

Lastpage

78

Abstract

On small platforms, angle-of-arrival (AOA) estimation of an E-M signal can be accomplished with colocated antennas measuring multiple components of the propagating wave. An electrically small vector sensor (VS) antenna constructed above and below the wing of a small UAV measures three components of the propagating wave. Determining the AOA involves fitting known "calibration" AOAs and corresponding antenna response to a modeled response. The least-squares calibration approach described here determines the azimuth and elevation AOAs for sources located at typical elevation angles to within a few degrees, agreeing with the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). These results justify the use of small VS antennas to do direction finding (DF) in high SNR environments

Keywords

VHF antennas; aircraft; direction-of-arrival estimation; least squares approximations; radio direction-finding; remotely operated vehicles; sensors; AOA; Cramer-Rao lower bound; angle-of-arrival estimation; colocated antennas; direction-finding results; least-squares calibration approach; small UAV; vector sensor antenna; Antenna accessories; Antenna measurements; Antennas and propagation; Azimuth; Calibration; Dipole antennas; Directive antennas; Electric variables measurement; Navigation; Unmanned aerial vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Sensor Array and Multichannel Processing, 2006. Fourth IEEE Workshop on

Conference_Location

Waltham, MA

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0308-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SAM.2006.1706094

Filename

1706094