Autonomous Drone Measurement Approach for Flying Base Stations

The widespread use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has been the key in expanding the application domain for antenna and field measurements. This paper proposes an original system for the measurement of the transmission patterns of flying basestations, using two drones. While one drone acts as a fixed radiation source with a transmitting antenna, the other conducts a survey over predefined trajectories to capture the received signal strength. The results from various flight plans-circular, cylindrical, and spherical-revealed consistent signal strength variations with max fluctuations of approximately 2.5 dB along the vertical axis, and the spherical flight providing comprehensive spatial coverage, all peaking towards the horizontal mounting pole of the transmit antenna. This work can serve as the basis for developing efficient UAV based measurement methods that will facilitate flying ad-hoc deployment and optimization of communication networks.