In situ antenna diagnostics and characterization system based on RFIDand Remotely Piloted Aircrafts

A cost-effective solution for in situ antenna characterization and diagnostics based on Radio FrequencyIDentification technology and Remotely Piloted Aircrafts is presented. The cost-effectiveness of the pro-posed solution is achieved by replacing the radio frequency equipment on-board the small aircrafts withRadio Frequency IDentification tags, while the Antenna Under Test is connected to a Radio FrequencyIDentification reader, thus reducing the weight and complexity of the payload of the aircrafts dedicatedto antenna measurement task. Received Signal Strength measurements are geo-referred with centimeter-level accuracy thanks to a Real Time Kinematic system. An iterative phase retrieval technique based onthe Sources Reconstruction Method is used to recover an equivalent magnetic currents distribution onthe Antenna Under Test aperture plane. The reconstructed currents distribution provides antenna diag-nostics information and enables the calculation of the antenna radiation pattern. The presented methodhas been validated by means of measurements in the UHF band for two different antenna arrays withexcellent result