Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) beam forming and pointing toward ground coverage area cells for broadband access

摘要

Systems and methods configured to form and point beams from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) toward target cells in a coverage area on the ground. One embodiment determines and forms the required number of UAV fixed beams needed to cover the target area when UAV is at its highest altitude and highest roll/pitch/yaw angles so that the target coverage area is covered under all UAV altitude and orientation conditions. In another embodiment, UAV determines the beam pointing angles toward different cells on the ground using information on position coordinates and orientation angles of the UAV, and the position coordinates of the cells in the coverage area relative to the center of coverage area. In another embodiment, a reference terminal placed at the center of coverage is used by the UAV to optimally point a beam toward center of the coverage area.

主权项

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) apparatus configured to form antenna beams toward at least one target coverage cell, comprising:
an antenna fixture configured to form at least one beam; a set of radio transmitters and receivers configured to transmit and receive signals to a set of ground terminals within the at least one target coverage cell; a processor sub-system; and a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising one or more instructions which, when executed by the processor sub-system, is configured to cause the UAV apparatus to:
generate the at least one beam that covers the at least one target coverage cell; andwherein the generated at least one beam encompasses at least one ground terminal of the set of ground terminals; wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium is further configured to cause the UAV apparatus to store one or more first position location coordinates corresponding to one or more coverage areas; wherein for at least one coverage area of the one or more coverage areas, the non-transitory computer readable medium is further configured to cause the UAV apparatus to store one or more second position location coordinates of target cells relative to a center of the at least one coverage area; and wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium further comprises one or more instructions that are configured to cause the UAV apparatus to:
obtain one or more third position location coordinates and orientation angles of the UAV apparatus based on at least one of a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a position location sub-system; andcompute one or more pointing angles from the antenna fixture toward the target cells based at least in part on the second position location coordinates, the third position location coordinates, and the orientation angles of the UAV apparatus.