Beamforming Assessment for Antenna Arrays Installed onto a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

This paper describes the assessment of beamforming capabilities of antenna arrays installed onto a small unmanned aerial vehicle predominantly composed of dielectric materials. Two antenna arrays are considered, whereby each array is composed of three quarter-wave monopoles. Initially, the electro-magnetic model is presented and simplifications in comparison to the actual aircraft are discussed. Installed performance is assessed by electromagnetic simulations of the arrays placed onto the aircraft. Finally, an assessment of beamforming capabilities is performed, whereby particle swarm optimization is used to estimate the beamforming coefficients for different antenna pattern scenarios.