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Antenna Tracking System for Airborne Vehicles in UHF Communication Range

By Anmol Oberoi June 21, 2014

 

The purpose of this projecct is to design and development of an Antenna Tracking System for Airborne vehicles in UHF communication range. It will reduce human involvement and help track automatically the exact position of a system under consideration. It could be an unmanned air vehicle to an unmanned ground vehicle or even a satellite.

Image showing field testing of Antenna Tracking System

Fig. 1: Image showing field testing of Antenna Tracking System

 

System Requirements for the Tracking System:

Serial No.

Component

Specifications

Requirements

1.

Antenna

Directional, 5 Element (433MHz)

1

2.

Quadcopter

3m GPS accuracy, 433MHz transmitter

1

3. 

Receiver Module

433Mhz

1

4.

Microcontroller

16 bit, 4K flash memory (or higher)

1

5. 

 Stepper Motor

150 kg-m (1.8° steps or higher)

1

6.

 Servomotor

900 kg-m

1

 

Antenna Design:

•      Following are the elements of Yagi-Uda:

–      Directors

–      Driven Element

–      Reflector

 

•       And the following are the parameters of a Yagi-Uda

–      The wavelength of the electromagnetic wave, ?

–      The length of the driven element

–      The length of the directors

–      The length of reflector

–      Spacing between directors

–      Spacing between reflector & driven element

–      Spacing between driven element & director

–      The type of driven element used

 

Communication:

433 MHz receiver specifications:

•       Working voltage: 5.0VDC +0.5V

•       Working current:<=5.5mA max

•       Working method: OOK/ASK

•       Working frequency: 433.92MHz

•       Bandwidth: 2Mhz

Coaxial cable specifications:

•       RG-58

•       50 Ohm

•       Line loss: 9.5 dB/100 ft

Typical image of 433 MHz RF Module

Fig. 2: Typical image of 433 MHz RF Module

Control System Design

•       Free body diagram

Free Body Diagram of Control System used in Antenna Tracking System

Fig. 3: Free Body Diagram of Control System used in Antenna Tracking System

 

•       J1, J2 – moments of inertia

•       B1, B2 – coefficients of sliding friction

•       T- Torque applied

•      O1 – intermediate rotation

•      O– Rotational output

Image showing calculations used in design of control system

Fig. 4: Image showing calculations used in design of control system

 

 

 

 

Hardware Control

Servo specifications:

•       Voltage: 4.8V –  6V; [5V]

•       Speed: 0.16sec/60 deg (4.8v) – 0.18sec/60deg (6v)

•       Torque: 9kg.cm (4.8v) – 10kg.cm (6v)                                                  

•       Size: 40.2mm x 20.1mm x 42.7mm

•       Weight: 48g

•       Gear Train: metallic

Typical Image of Servo Motor

Fig. 5: Typical Image of Servo Motor

Stepper motor (STH – 39D21) specifications:    

•       Step angle: 1.8°                                                            

•       Voltage :8 V                               

•       Current : 0.75 A

•       Resistance : 19 ?

•       Inductance:32 mH

•       Control Wires: 4

Typical Image of Stepper Motor

Fig. 6: Typical Image of Stepper Motor

Stepper motor driver (L298N) specifications:

•       Supply voltage:upto 46V

•       Total DC current:upto 4 amps

•       Can connect two unipolar motors simultaneously

Typical Image of Power Regulator

Fig. 7: Typical Image of Power Regulator

Arduino Specifications:

Operating Voltage :

5V

Digital I/O Pins :

14

Analog Input Pins :

6

Flash Memory :

32 KB

SRAM :

2 KB

EEPROM :

1 KB

Clock Speed :

16 MHz

Serial Tx and Rx pins:

present

LED :

present

Typical Image of Arduino Uno

Fig. 8: Typical Image of Arduino Uno

Methodology

•       The system is in the ready state initially

•       As soon as an airborne system is located in its range of operation, the system starts to receive its GPS coordinates

•       On receiving the GPS coordinates, the azimuth and elevation are decoded

•       The software module updates the hardware module in accordance with the decoded values

•       The antenna, which is controlled by the hardware module, follows the airborne system and collects data from it

•       The process repeats till a reset is pressed to stop

Finding Azimuth and Elevation(ECEF: Earth Centered Earth Flat)

•       The current azimuth is found using azimuth formula

–      The latitudes and longitudes of AURORA are taken as 01 and 01 respectively

–      The current values for the airborne system are 02 and 0 2

–      f = 1/298.257223563  and  1 – e2 = (1 – f)2

Image showing Azimuth Formula

Fig. 9: Image showing Azimuth Formula

•       Elevation is found using the linear latitude and longitudes

–      If 0 is the latitude in degrees,

–      Linear latitude = 111132.954 – 559.822 cos(2 0) + 1.175 cos(4 ?)

–      Linear longitude = (p/180)6378137 cos(tan-1 (0.99664719 tan(0 )))              

–      If x is the latitude and the average radius of the earth is taken into account

–      Linear average longitude = (p/180)(6367499) cos(0)

Results

Antenna and its gain pattern

Graph showing Frequency-Gain Relation for different wavelengths

Fig. 10: Graph showing Frequency-Gain Relation for different wavelengths

                             Radiation patterns:

                                                                                  Elevation (linear

Image showing linear gain pattern of Antenna at 90 degree elevation

Fig. 11: Image showing linear gain pattern of Antenna at 90 degree elevation

                                                                                  Elevation (log)

Image showing log gain pattern of Antenna at 90 degree elevation

Fig. 12: Image showing log gain pattern of Antenna at 90 degree elevation

                                                                                  Azimuth (linear)  

Image showing linear gain pattern of Antenna at 0 degree azimuth

Fig. 13: Image showing linear gain pattern of Antenna at 0 degree azimuth

                                                                                  Azimuth (log)

Image showing log gain pattern of Antenna at 0 degree azimuth

Fig. 14: Image showing log gain pattern of Antenna at 0 degree azimuth

Antenna and Range

Antenna and its range

Height of transmitter (quadcopter) = 10 m

Height of receiver =1 m

Antenna Parameter

Value

Boom Length :

0.45m

Gain:

10.32 dB

Diameter of elements :

0.006 m

Front to Back ratio :

23.43 dB

Input impedancee:

51.8

 Directivity:

9.2dBi

Range Parameter

 

Value

Radio Line of Sight

:

21766.484434 m

Line loses (Due to coax)

:

0.31167979002 dB/m

Antenna Gain

:

10.26 dB

Path Loss

:

46.3781 dBm

Responses and Stability of System

 

Step Response

Graph showing step response of Antenna

Fig. 15: Graph showing step response of Antenna

Root Locus

Graph showing root locus of Antenna

Fig. 16: Graph showing root locus of Antenna

 

Linear GPS Coordinates and Azimuth at a particular elevation of 56 °

Table showing Linear GPS Coordinates and Azimuth at a particular elevation of 56 degree

Fig. 17: Table showing Linear GPS Coordinates and Azimuth at a particular elevation of 56 degree

 

               List of azimuths at 50°- 60° elevation range  at bus parking lot of RVCE

Table showing List of azimuths at 50°- 60° elevation range  at bus parking lot of RVCE

Fig. 18: Table showing List of azimuths at 50°- 60° elevation range at bus parking lot of RVCE

 

The average azimuth range was found out to be 324.936° This gives the efficiency of  90.26%.

 

 

Project Source Code

###



// ------ Code for Elevation 



 #include <math.h>

#define DEG_To_RAD 0.0174532925

double deg_lat_base=12.922490;

double deg_lat_tar=12.922608;

double lat,lat_base,lat_tar;

double lon,lon_base,lon_tar;

double rad_lat;

double tar_h=0.005;

double base_h=0.000038;

double rad_long;

void convert(double deg_lat_pass)

{

rad_lat=DEG_TO_RAD*deg_lat_pass;

lat=111132.954-(559.822*cos(2.00*(rad_lat)))+(1.175*cos((4.00*rad_lat)));

rad_long=atan(0.99664719*tan(rad_lat));

lon=DEG_TO_RAD*6378137.00*cos(rad_long);

}

double distance,h;

void dist()

{

distance=((lat_tar-lat_base)*(lat_tar-lat_base))-((lon_tar-lon_base)*(lon_tar-lon_base));

distance=sqrt(fabs(distance));

Serial.println(distance,10);

}

void calc_h()

{

h=(tar_h-base_h);

h=atan(h/distance);

h=h/DEG_TO_RAD;

Serial.println(h,10);

}

void setup()

{

Serial.print(h,9);

}

void loop()

{

Serial.begin(9600);

convert(deg_lat_base);

lat_base=lat;

lon_base=lon;

Serial.println(lat_base,10);

Serial.println(lon_base,10);

convert(deg_lat_tar);

lat_tar=lat;

lon_tar=lon;

Serial.println(lat_tar,10);

Serial.println(lon_tar,10);

dist();

calc_h();

}




// ------- Code for Servo Motor ----




 #include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo; // create servo object to control a servo

// a maximum of eight servo objects can be created

int pos = 0; // variable to store the servo position

void setup()

{

myservo.attach(9); // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object

}

void loop()

{

for(pos = 0; pos < 180; pos += 1) // goes from 0 degrees to 180 degrees

{ // in steps of 1 degree

myservo.write(pos); // tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos'

delay(15); // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position

}

for(pos = 180; pos>=1; pos-=1) // goes from 180 degrees to 0 degrees

{

myservo.write(pos); // tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos'

delay(15); // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position

}

}




// ------- Code for Stepper Motor





 int Pin0 = 9; // INP B1

int Pin1 = 10; //INP B2

int Pin2 = 11; // INP A1

int Pin3 = 12; //INP A2

// exchange A1-2 or B1-2 pins if its not working

int _step = 4; // initialize to -1 when dir = true, 4 when dir = false

boolean dir = false;// gre

void setup()

{

pinMode(Pin0, OUTPUT);

pinMode(Pin1, OUTPUT);

pinMode(Pin2, OUTPUT);

pinMode(Pin3, OUTPUT);

pinMode(6,OUTPUT);

pinMode(7,OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(6,HIGH);

digitalWrite(7,HIGH);

}

void loop()

{

if(dir){

_step++;

}else{

_step--;

}

if(_step>3){

_step=0;

}

if(_step<0){

_step=3;

}

switch(_step){

case 0:

digitalWrite(Pin0, HIGH);

digitalWrite(Pin1, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin2, HIGH);

digitalWrite(Pin3, LOW);

break;

case 1:

digitalWrite(Pin0, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin1, HIGH);

digitalWrite(Pin2, HIGH);

digitalWrite(Pin3, LOW);

break;

case 2:

digitalWrite(Pin0, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin1, HIGH);

digitalWrite(Pin2, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin3, HIGH);

break;

case 3:

digitalWrite(Pin0, HIGH);

digitalWrite(Pin1, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin2, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin3, HIGH);

break;

default:

digitalWrite(Pin0, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin1, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin2, LOW);

digitalWrite(Pin3, LOW);

break;

}

delay(10);

}###

 


Circuit Diagrams

Circuit-Diagram-Antenna-Tracking-System-Airborne-Vehicles-Uhf-Communication-Range

Project Video


Filed Under: Electronic Projects
Tagged With: antena, Arduino, stepper motor
 

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