Impact of Rotor Blade Rotation of UAVs on Electromagnetic Field Measurements
Fabian T. Faul, Daniel Korthauer, Thomas F. Eibert
Abstract
In near-field measurements, the correction of the field probe influence is crucial for achieving high accuracy. With the increasing interest in antenna measurements based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), probe correction becomes essential also in this field. Here, the actual probe comprises the UAV together with the mounted probe antenna and in particular also the rotors which are spinning during flight. In this contribution, we investigate the field modulation caused by the rotating rotor blades of an unmanned aerial vehicle. We show that the arising modulation depends on the polarization of the used probe antenna as well as on the spatial separation from the UAV. It is also revealed that the rotor-caused modulation effect correlates with the rotation speed and that it is independent of the actual measurement frequency.