Republic of Yemen

Sana'a University
Faculty of Engineering
Electrical Engineering Department
Communications & Electronics Section

Antenna Tracker

Prepared by :

Hani Y. Al-nowairah

Sana'a 2015

Antenna Tracker
The software of Antenna Tracker , combined with appropriate hardware, can be used to cause
high-gain antenna to track a mavlink equipped air or ground vehicle in real time, providing higher
quality radio links over longer distances than a stationary or omnidirectional antenna Tracker can be a
stationary installation on the ground, or can be mobile, mounted on a vehicle, and moving at the same
time as the vehicle it is tracking, such as on a pursuit vehicle etc.
Alt-Azimuth mounted -also called bearing or yaw) -180 to 180 degrees and one for Altitude (also(
antenna tracker, equipped with 2 servos: one for Azimuth called elevation, or pitch) -90 degrees
.straight up). I used an Eagle Tree Antenna Pan-Tilt( (straight down) to 90 degrees
A suitable power supply is also needed, possibly battery powered , the onboard 5V regulator is not
able to drive large servos without causing large amounts of electrical noise in the processor, so you
would probably need an external 5V regulated supply .

Theory of Operation
Antenna Tracker receives real-time GPS position reports from the vehicle being tracked (in the
form of GLOBAL_POSITION_INT messages sent by mavlink radio connection or possibly by hardwired
serial connection). Antenna Tracker also knows it own current position. Based on these 2 sets of
coordinates, it calculates the magnetic bearing and elevation to the vehicle. It then moves the tracker
servos until the antenna (and the Antenna Tracker processor) are aligned with the desired bearing and
elevation. At this stage the antenna is pointed straight at the tracked vehicle. As the vehicle (and
possibly the antenna mount itself) move around, the servos are continually move to track the vehicle .
Antenna Tracker currently only supports closed loop feedback to position the antenna. This
requires that Antenna Tracker processor (including accelerometers and compass) be mounted on the
moving part of the antenna tracker hardware. The servos are moved until the yaw and pitch of the
and therefore of the antenna itself) matches the bearing and elevation to the tracked ( processor
vehicle .

How does Antenna Tracker know where it is on the earth ?

If the tracker is equipped with a GPS and it has had a good 3D fix, the - recent good GPS fix is used .
most
If -If the tracker is equipped with a GPS and it has lost its fix, the most recent good GPS fix is used
there is no good GPS fix since startup (either because there is no GPS equipped or because the GPS has
not yet got a fix), the most recently set HOME location is used.
If no HOME location has ever been set in the tracker, 0.0 Latitude, 0.0 Longitude, 0 Altitude
are used (which is probably not very helpful )

How does Antenna Tracker get GLOBAL_POSITION_INT

messages from the tracked vehicle ?
mavproxy, when it runs the tracker module, intercepts all GLOBAL_POSITION_INT messages
received from its master vehicle, and sends them to the tracker. It knows how to connect to the tracker
with the set port and set baud rate commands, for example to connect by a USB-Serial radio, such as
after starting mavproxy module load tracker tracker set port (the 3DR Radio on port : /dev/tty USB0
/dev/ttyUSB0 tracker set baud rate 57600 tracker start .

Mounting
The Antenna Tracker processor must be mounted on the moving (ie the rotating tilting) part of the
antenna tracker hardware. Just how you do this will depend on your exact hardware, but if the
processor is mounted in anything other than the default orientation (ie with the processor default
'forward direction pointing in the direction the antenna points, you will have to configure
AHRS_ORIENTATION in the Antenna Tracker configuration to suit your mechanical mounting
arrangements .

Configuration
It is vitally important that your Antenna Tracker be properly configured for the mounting, servos and
other hardware in your tracker. Unless you do this IT WILL PROBABLY NOT WORK AS EXPECTED.
CAUTION: It might even oscillate or flap around. It might even damage itself .
Antenna Tracker (like other ardupilot software ) has configuration values that control and
tailor its operation, and which are stored in EEPROM on the processor. The configuration is
restored from EEPROM every time the processor starts. You can use MissionPlanner,
mavproxy or apm_planner or other mavlink compatible software to check and change the
configuration of your Antenna Tracker.

Compass Calibration
Antenna Tracker uses its internal magnetic compass to determine where North is and therefore
where to point for each bearing to the target vehicle. (On other ardupilot vehicles, the yaw is also
calibrated by the current GPS track. This is not possible for Antenna Tracker, so the compass is the
only possible source for absolute bearing ). The compass magnetometer is exquisitely sensitive to
nearby magnetic fields from wires, metal fittings, servos, radios etc. Therefore is it VITALLY
ESSENTIAL that you calibrate the compass. Further, it must be calibrated outdoors, while installed in
situ in the tracker, with all other equipment installed, fastened down and ready to operate . Failure
to calibrate correctly will result in the tracker pointing in the wrong direction, or the azimuth/yaw
and elevation/pitch drifting .

Leveling
Since Antenna Tracker uses its internal accelerometers (amongst other things) to determine
the current elevation/pitch of the antenna, it is also important to 'level' the Antenna Tracker before
use so the accelerometers are calibrated. Failure to do this will result in the antenna constantly
pointing a bit high or a bit low compared to the tracked vehicle . After powering up Antenna
Tracker, it may take up to 1 minute while it automatically calibrates the compass before it points in
the expected direction. Moving the tracker around will speed up this process.

How to set the HOME location

If your Antenna Tracker is not equipped with a GPS, you can still use it to track vehicles. First
you will have to tell Antenna Tracker where it is on the ground by setting its HOME position
Connect to Antenna Tracker with mavproxy module load map :
-the map will appear
-Zoom and drag the map until you can see the location Your Antenna Tracker is located
where
-Click the mouse on the location of the antenna( wp sethome) Antenna Tracker will now
remember this as its HOME location whenever it is started.

Good Flying !!!!!