Ground Station Tracking Antenna

The ground control antenna was capable of rotating a patch and Yagi antenna about the yaw and pitch axes to continuously receive images from an autonomous drone. This was important for competitions where a fixed-wing aircraft would provide real-time image processing while a multi-rotor aircraft could complete the competition task.

• Designed the 3rd revision resulting in a 25% reduction in weight and a 50% reduction in packed size. Portability was a major objective of the new revision, as the equipment needed to be flown to competitions.

• Programmed and calibrated the software used to track the drone. A 9-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) was used to ensure yaw and pitch orientation within five angular degrees.

• Fabricated using water-jet acrylic, laser-cut aluminum, and 3D-printed resin parts.