Unmanned aerial vehicle location systems. Antenna Arrays
Authors: Koltzov Yu.V. 
Published: October 2024

Radars remain the only all–weather location systems, which is especially important in difficult conditions of their use. Antenna array technologies remain critical for the development of dynamic areas of technology and, first of all, UAVs location systems. The development of location systems and antenna arrays for UAVs has been going on for a long time. Radars and antenna arrays installed on medium– and large–class UAVs differ little from airplane and helicopter systems. Among UAVs, the maximum number of UAVs used are UAVs of minimal size, weight and cost. Due to their high maneuverability, minimal visibility and a large number of tasks to be solved. Therefore, radars are subject to minimum size, weight, dimensions and consumption requirements at maximum range. The widespread use of small UAVs has led to the fact that their radars and antenna arrays are on a par with automotive ones, when the possibilities for their placement are significantly limited, even more so than in cars. For the latter, the problem of miniaturization appeared earlier, but not as severely as in UAVs. Antenna arrays are subject to requirements for minimizing dimensions, weight and consumption. Nanotechnology provides this. It's safe to say that the time has come for large–scale solutions to complex problems in antenna systems. Depending on the type of a UAV, it is possible to use a number of methods for constructing antenna arrays: known and proven – linear and fractal; the most modern – metastructures; widely used – tiled; new: flexible and three–dimensional printed; a combination of several methods. Currently, the most attractive areas for the development of antenna arrays for UAVs are: scaling – growing a large number of similar structures to create large apertures; spacing antenna arrays across the surface of the carrier for viewing both forward, sideways and backward, as well as down and up. The development of silicon tiled antenna arrays has led to the realization of very high operating frequencies (90–100 GHz) on the most affordable process technologies (130–180 nm), and the antenna array is fabricated as a chip. The optimal option for constructing antenna arrays is to ensure the reception, conversion and preprocessing of input signals directly in the antenna system in real time, unloading the radar for solving problems that require powerful processing. Post–processing allows you to obtain a more accurate solution to the problem. The combination of pre–processing and post–processing, supported by advanced software and powerful artificial intelligence, expands the capabilities and improves the parameters of the location system. It is important that artificial intelligence ensures the autonomous movement of a UAV, although its use requires large consumption and memory resources. The integrated location system absorbed for the most part the capabilities of a large stationary radar. At the same time, minimum dimensions, weight and consumption are ensured to solve the necessary modern problems. Several radars with their own antenna arrays can be installed on a UAV, which operate in the internal network, complementing each other.