Low-Cost Compact Automated Position-Correcting Antenna Control Unit

The Navy operates hundreds of thousands of sensors and datalinks across unattended surface and undersea buoys, surface, undersea, and air vehicles manned and unmanned, and man-portable nodes.  Most of these use low-gain omnidirectional RF antennas for sensing or communications, and these antennas must radiate in all directions to ensure sensor coverage and data links are maintained regardless of positioning or movement.  Higher-gain directional antennas provide improved range and LPD/LPI, but must be pointed towards their targets, and high-speed aiming through electronic means with high operational reliability is preferred.  No commercial product exists that transforms position-navigation-timing data of inertial measurement units, GNSS resources, and position sensor and correction factors into an automated “antenna independent” set of electronic beam steering controls.  This opportunity is to create an integrated module with PNT-ACU capability at low SWaP-C. IXI develops C5ISR and multi-band sensor and effector products with a focus on counter-UAS and SIGINT systems. OSU develops broadband compact antenna arrays, efficient signal processing techniques, and direction-finding algorithms. In this program, IXI and OSU team up to integrate COTS PNT sensor components with low-power processing to generate antenna control unit commands.  Such a module can be used by a wide variety of sensor and data link applications.  A candidate electronically steered aperture (broadband printed antenna array or inflatable reflectarray) will be designed to showcase capabilities for a miniature automated c-UAS and radar sensor and effector suitable for mounting on surface, airborne, and ground platforms on-the-move.  By Phase I end, a final PNT-ACU schematic will be ready for layout and fabrication, and the candidate array will be modeled in HFSS at relevant C2, video/telemetry data, and radar bands to show effectiveness in maintaining beam pattern under extreme dynamic environmental perturbation.