METHOD OF ANTENNA DIRECTIVITY MEASUREMENT WITH UAV BY TEST FLIGHT METHOD Russian patent published in 2017 - IPC G01R29/10 

FIELD: radio engineering, communication.

SUBSTANCE: automation of the antenna directivity measurement process is provided, based on the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), circling the measured antenna in fully automatic mode, at a distance satisfying the condition of the far zone of the test antenna. Herewith the UAV global coordinates are determined by means of an on-board receiver of signals of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS, including GLONASS). The required accuracy is achieved due to the introduction of differential corrections received from the Control-Correcting Station (CCS) in the result of measurements during post-processing. To improve the accuracy of measuring the amplitude of the signal during post-processing and charting the directivity pattern (DP), corrections based on the position of the UAV relative to the observed antenna at the time of measurement and a priori known DP of an onboard antenna are introduced into the measurement result. The specified accuracy of the DP measurement is achieved by correcting errors in measuring global coordinates, as well as errors in measuring the amplitude of the signal associated with the UAV evolution in space during the flight and the DP non-isotropy of the onboard antenna. In case of measuring the directivity parameters of the transmitting antenna, field power measurements are made directly on board the UAV using a broadband power meter that captures the power of the useful signal coming from the input of the tunable bandpass filter. In case of measuring the directivity parameters of the receiving antenna, the signal amplitude is recorded on the Earth by means of a receiving measuring device connected to the test antenna. Synchronization of the measurement data of the signal amplitude and the UAV coordinates is performed in the process of post-processing using time stamps received from the on-board GNSS receiver on board the UAV and with the CCS on the Earth.

EFFECT: expanding the functionality, increasing the accuracy, reducing the measurement time of technical characteristics of antennas and reducing the cost of their research.

3 cl, 2 dwg