A Low-cost Antenna Tracking System Integrated with GPS for UAVs

In today’s world, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly incorporated into different sectors to perform different functions for both military and commercial applications. Depending on the pace of use, the environment affects the signal quality, transmission and reception ability between the UAV and its ground control station (GCS). To mitigate the poor communication and avoid the disruption of communication between the GCS and UAV, an antenna tracking system (ATS) can be used. This work aims to design a good performance ATS using a helical antenna, integrated with GPS. The helical antenna is controlled by proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. To improve accuracy and provide redundancy in case of system failure, GPS is integrated to the ATS. The PID controller provides stability of the system in varying system operational stages against internal and external disturbances.