SATISFACTION OF PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
Provided are the set of requirements that were mainly my responsibility as the mechanical engineering student on the team out of the 30 requirements set by Analog Devices:
The system shall be capable of remaining airborne for 20 minutes. The customer requires that a complete test shall be taken each time to improve test accuracy.
The system should be flown semi-autonomously, without the need for human control once the test begins. Fine rotational positioning will not be accurate or repeatable with a human operator.
Operators shall not need extensive experience piloting drones to use the system. While some human control may be needed for setup, most flight operations should be handled by the vendor supplied fight software
The phased array package including rotating gimbal and electrical components shall be positioned to set the center of mass directly under the drone body. This is required to achieve optimal stability and increase the flight time
The radar system shall be attached to a single axis rotating mount allowing for independent antenna rotation with respect to the ground station.
The rotating mount shall be designed to allow at least 180 degrees of movement without inference from the drone body or landing gear. 180-degree rotation is desired to observe the side lobes at extreme angles.
The system should be capable of rotational maneuvers with a 2-degree resolution. This is required to accurately measure the distortion between beam steering and physical rotation (Bob Broughton, ADI).
The system shall be capable of correcting its position or rotation in-between trials. Changes in wind during tests could cause the drone to drift. Corrections must be made to keep the system in the same position physically.
Sep. 2016 – May 2017
ANALOG DEVICES INC.- UMASS LOWELLINDUSTRY-SPONSORED CAPSTONE PROJECT:
ALTERNATIVE METHOD FOR MEASURING RADIATION PATTERN USING A DRONE
For my senior capstone project, I was part of a multi-disciplinary team of engineering students working on an academic year long project sponsored by Analog Devices Inc.
The aim of this project was to test the feasibility of using a drone to elevate a system capable of performing radar tests outside rather than the more traditional way of using an anechoic chamber or simulating the results, to cut costs and increase the availability of such test to all divisions in the company.
To prove the feasibility of this method, our team designed and manufactured a system capable of elevating a phased array antenna system up to 10 meters using a drone and rotating the angle of the antenna 180 degrees relative to a ground system with a horn antenna, spectrum analyzer, and laptop computer.
The results proved that a drone could be used to characterise beam forming and other types of radar chips in the future. At a cost of roughly less than 5,000 dollars the project proposes a huge return on investment both on the money and time saved compared to the cost of building an anechoic chamber that is a minimum of 30,000 dollars and the time to be consumed as well.
Evaluating the results obtained when the system was fixed on the drone and tested in an anechoic chamber and comparing it to the results obtained form the in-flight test, this method of testing radiation patterns is concluded to be feasible however a drone of higher stability control in air is required which will have an impact on the budget used, lowering the financial benefit of the project.