Automatic Landing of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles via Wireless Positioning System with Pseudo-Conical Scanning

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Control Systems
• Aerospace Engineering
• Wireless Communication

Background:

• Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation and landing require precise positioning systems.
• Phased antenna arrays (PAA) offer advanced beamforming capabilities for wireless guidance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a wireless unmanned landing system for UAVs.
• To investigate the performance of a low-budget patch PAA with electronic scanning for navigation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized pseudo conical scanning principles with a phased antenna array (PAA).
• Developed a landing algorithm based on linear regression of radiation beam difference characteristics.
• Analyzed systematic and random positioning errors using measurement and Monte Carlo simulation.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated algorithm convergence and acceptable accuracy for UAV landing system implementation.
• Validated the effectiveness of a four-state radiation pattern for a low-budget patch PAA.
• Identified parameters for adjusting Kalman filter for enhanced performance.

Conclusions:

• The proposed wireless UAV landing system is practical and computationally efficient.
• The system enables reliable unmanned landing, tracking, and navigation for UAVs.
• The technology can be extended for wireless navigation of other mobile objects.