Miniature Low-Cost Bandwidth Efficient Advanced Modulation (BEAM) Transceiver for Small Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Recent advancements in modulation and coding have produced waveforms that are not only both power and bandwidth efficient, but are also well suited for operation with small, highly efficient, non-linear power amplifiers. These new techniques can significantly improve the current throughput of standard 25 KHz UHF channels, thereby enabling a single channel to simultaneously carry digital data, imagery, and control. One attractive application for this technology is to transmit, receive, and relay digital data and imagery to and from uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAV's). One proposed waveform, namely the bandwidth efficient advanced modulation (BEAM) developed by Rockwell Collins, has demonstrated 100 Kbps throughput over a standard UHF 25 KHz channel. This program will be to design a miniature low-cost UHF transceiver suitable for use on a UAV that uses the BEAM waveform to efficiently transmit, receive, and relay digital data and images.