Review of Patch Antennas used in Drone Applications

Abstract

Drones are a form of remote-controlled aircraft that can take to the air without the need for a human pilot. An increasing number of people are looking into using drones for a variety of tasks, including but not limited to operations in hazardous areas, environmental monitoring and sensing, aerial spreading of fertilizer and agricultural chemicals, disaster management and transporting goods from one location to another. Drones are receiving a lot of attention for these and other uses. A drone's position and navigation can only be controlled by the remote pilot via radio frequency (RF) transmission between the drone and the remote pilot. In order to facilitate two-way communications between the drone and its operator, it is necessary to keep a tight eye on the telemetry data and supplementary sensor data being sent and received by the drone in real time. Unmanned flying would not be conceivable without a flexible and dependable communication system. Due to the necessity of complete spatial coverage for drone communication, the antenna radiating in an isotropic pattern presents itself as a promising option for unmanned flying. Therefore, microstrip patch antenna is an excellent choice for drone applications.INDEX TERMS Drone communication, antenna design, phased antenna array, patch array, reconfigurable antenna, UWB radar, smart antenna, parasitic patch, triangle array antenna, realized gain, swarm drones, ground station and compact array antenna.

For wireless LAN application, microstrip patch antenna design in S-band

“…There has been a tremendous increase in microstrip antennas, which are currently widely used in various cutting-edge microwave systems. The rapid proliferation of refined and improved applications encouraged ongoing research intending to fine-tune and enhance the fundamental features of the technology [20]. Modifying the designer's choices of substrate type, antenna structure, perturbation type, and…”

Smart Selective Antennas System (SSAS): Improving 4G LTE Connectivity for UAVs Using Directive Selective Antennas

“…Multiple antenna systems have been investigated to trans-mit and receive the signal only from the intended direction, which varies over time depending on the relative orientation of the UAV and the base station [19]- [21]. These systems include a number of radiating elements arranged on a 3D surface and a feed network, used to activate the optimal radiating elements to support the communication link.…”

“…In [19], a review of patch antennas used for UAV-borne systems, where the need of 360 • beam coverage at relatively high gain is addressed, is presented, then identifying multiple switched patch antennas and phased array patch antennas as valuable solution for this problem. In [20], a system composed by five dual-port dual-polarization crossed inverted-V antennas optimized for UAV Air-to-Ground communication is proposed, where the feed network is based on a Single-Pole-Five-Throw (SP5T) switch (antenna selection) and five Single-Pole-Double-Throw (SP2T) switches (polarization selection).…”

Flexible Symmetric-Defection Antenna with Bending and Thermal Insensitivity for Miniaturized UAV

“…In addition, especially for long-term flight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ohm loss from inertial electrical components always causes some thermal interference, further weakening the antenna impedance matching [ 28 ]. Previous studies have verified the resonant frequency or working bandwidth shifts or mismatches with varying temperatures owing to the thermal sensitivity of the substrate [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ].…”