Directional Antenna Alignment Control System

The goal of the project is to create a control system that can be used to automatically align a directional antenna mounted on a barge to an on-shore omnidirectional antenna. This system will use GPS coordinates of the bow and stern of the barge to determine the directional antenna's position as well as the coordinate of the on-shore antenna to determine the angle of alignment that the system will need to output.

=Problem Definition=

Background
The U.S Navy Acoustic Research Detachment has been conducting research on a barge and transmitting the recorded data to an on-shore omnidirectional antenna. Their transmitting antenna is not automatically aligned to the receiving antenna on the shore. Thus, those on the barge must go up to the antenna and manually redirect it every time the barge moves to a new location. This wastes time and energy of personnel as well as delays research. Utilizing a control system that automatically aligns the transmitting antenna to the onshore antenna could significantly reduce waiting time. We will be creating a control system that will align the antenna within 30 seconds the moment the system is powered. Additionally, the system will have an on/off switch so that those on the barge will not have to go up to the antenna to power the system, further increasing the convenience of aligning the antenna. The precision of the antenna will also improve as the antenna adjustment will be a mechanical output of a calculated digital input position, which is more precise than the human eye.

Deliverables
The objective of this project is to create a working finalized product that can be mounted and implemented atop the barge. The system will also be configured to be a "plug-n-play" device and made so that maintenance and upkeep is fairly easy to conduct.

6. Schedule Requirements
=Design= The following is a description of the control system's functional process and our design choices for the prototype.

Functional Process
Once the device has been powered on, the first step of our system's process will be receiving a RS232 serial communication from a GPS receiver. This receiver will send the coordinates of the bow and stern of the barge. Once the message is received, a microcontroller calculates the position of the directional antenna and then, using the fixed coordinate of the on-shore antenna, determines the angle that the directional antenna would need to rotate (relative to the bow of the barge) to properly align itself to the on-shore antenna. One thing to note is that the microcontroller will adjust the angle of rotation based on what angle the antenna is currently at (again, relative to the bow). Next, the microcontroller translates the angle into stepper motor steps and then send the result out to the motor where it will turn accordingly. The mounting rod of the directional antenna will be connected to the shaft of the stepper, therefore turning as the motor turns. To ensure the stepper motor moved to the correct position, an encoder will be attached and will send a signal containing the position back to the microcontroller where necessary angle adjustments will be made. Once the control system has deemed the motor to be in the correct position, the whole process will then repeat.

System Design
The design for our device can be split up into three different subsystems: Housing, Power, and Control.

Process
=Project Learning=

=Final Design=

=Validation=

=Team Members=

=Additional Documentation=

Project Schedule



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