GPS-Aided Electronically Controlled 360° Beam-Switching Antenna System

Abstract

In this paper, a pattern reconfigurable antenna system operating at 2.4 GHz is proposed for enhancing the connectivity of unmanned surface vessels (USVs). The proposed system is assumed to be located on a USV which is able to determine the relative position of the base station (BS) antenna and to select one out of four directional antenna arrays electronically. The appropriate array can then be directed to the BS antenna according to the associated Global Positioning System (GPS) information. The performance of individual components, including the proposed antenna array and switching circuit are first presented. Then, a comparison of the proposed entire GPS-aided electronically controlled beam-switching antenna system and a conventional dipole is carried out. The experimental result shows that the proposed system can potentially provide more than double communication distance with respect to the same received signal strength indicator (RSSI).