AMTA Webinar Series

Title: Drone-Based Outdoor Far-Field Antenna Measurements
Speaker: Dr. Cosme Culotta-López, QuadSAT
Originally Presented: June 15, 2022

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Abstract:

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), colloquially known as drones, offer unparalleled flexibility and portability for outdoor and in situ antenna measurements, which is especially convenient to assess the performance of systems in their real world conditions of application. As with any new or emerging measurement technology, it is crucial that the various sources of error must be identified and then estimated. This is especially true here where the sources of error differ from those that are generally encountered with classical antenna measurement systems. This is due to the larger number of mechanical degrees of freedom, and to the potentially less repeatable and controllable environmental conditions. In this webinar, the impact of some of these various error terms is estimated as part of an ongoing measurement validation campaign. A mechanically and electrically time invariant reference antenna was characterized at ESAESTEC’s measurement facilities which served here as an independent reference laboratory. The reference results were compared and contrasted with measurements performed outdoors at Quad-SAT’s premises using QuadSAT’s UAS for Antenna Performance Evaluation (UAS-APE). While a direct comparison between the measurement results from ESA-ESTEC and QuadSAT delivers information about the various uncertainties within a UAS-APE system in comparison to classical measurement facilities and the validity of such a system for antenna testing, other tests aim at providing an estimation of the impact of each error source on the overall uncertainty budget, thus paving the way towards a standardized uncertainty budget for outdoor UAS-based sites.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Cosme Culotta-López

Dr. Cosme Culotta-López received the engineering degree (M. Sc.) in telecommunications engineering from the University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain, in 2014, and his doctoral degree (Dr.-Ing.) in electrical engineering from RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, in 2021. He was a Research Assistant with the Institute of High Frequency Technology, RWTH Aachen University, from 2014 to 2021, when he joined QuadSAT as a Senior RF Engineer. His work on sampling theory for near-field antenna measurements has been awarded the 1st place Best Paper Award at the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) annual symposium in 2018 and 2020, and several Best Student Paper Awards as either the main author (2018 and 2019 at AMTA; 2019 at PhotonIcs and Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS)) or co-author (2020 at AMTA). His work on antenna measurements using Unmanned Aerial Systems has been awarded the 2nd place Best Paper Award at the AMTA annual symposium in 2021. He is a member of the European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP), and a member of AMTA. He serves on the Board of Directors of AMTA since 2022. Currently, his main research focuses on antenna measurements using Unmanned Aerial Systems.

 

About AMTA Webinar Series:

AMTA webinar series is introduced to highlight latest antenna measurement technologies to the AMTA community. Speakers are selected from the best papers presented at the AMTA conferences. Future webinars will be announced soon.