This letter presents a novel approach to build a compact lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) radar for remote sensing applications. The proposed radar exploits the recent advancement of an automotive radar chip for broadband chirp generation and rapid data processing. To compensate for the path losses and improve penetration at the millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequency range, an up-and down-converters are developed to generate an UWB (3.25-5.15 GHz) chirp signal. The total payload of the radar is 2.5 kg. The proposed radar is installed on a UAV and tested in the field at 100 m altitude above the ground surface. The results show that the compact low-power UWB radar can be used to map vegetation and soil moisture with fine resolution.
─ This paper presents the capabilities of an 8×8 Rectangular Dielectric Resonator Antenna (RDRA) planar array with broad bandwidth and high gain. To improve shielding of a multi-stage feeding network, the proposed array is designed using a stripline feeding network with two different substrates. To enhance impedance matching while keeping a sufficient F/B ratio of 20 dB, the lower ground of the stripline has a smaller dimension than the upper ground plane. The proposed array covers the frequency band from 3.79 to 6.29 GHz with 50% fractional bandwidth. The peak realized gain ranges from 18 to 22 dBi, with 85% of radiation efficiency throughout the frequency of interest. The overall size and weight of the array is 215×215×14.5 mm 3 and 650 g, respectively. Furthermore, the radiation patterns appear as low as 15 dB of peak-to-side lobe level with 25 dB cross polarization level, which makes the proposed array suitable for UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) radar applications. The measurements and simulations agree considerably.
In this paper, a capacitively-fed, ultra-wideband (UWB), and low-profile monocone antenna is proposed for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) applications. The proposed antenna consists of a monocone design with an inner set of vias. Additionally, an outer ring is added with a small gap from the monocone and shorted with six folded wires of different lengths to extend the operating band. The proposed antenna covers the frequency range from 0.75 GHz to 7.6 GHz and has a 164% fractional bandwidth, with a gain value varying between 2 and 10 dBi. The dimensions of the antenna are 0.37λL × 0.37λL × 0.067λL. The antenna was fabricated using a 3D printer with low-cost polylactic acid plastic (PLA) material and then sprayed with aerosol copper nanoparticles. The efficiency was approximately 90% throughout the frequency bands of interest. Finally, the proposed antenna was installed on a vehicle and tested with an OBU (onboard unit) and a RSU (roadside unit) in the field. The results show a longer wireless communication range for V2X applications.
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