Aerospace & Drones
AIRSPACE | MANAGEMENT |SAFETY
Helix Antenna Based Solutions
Resilient PNT with precision accuracy enables safe and confident integration of drones with commercial air traffic
The growing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) or drones in numerous applications is driving the need to integrate them safely into global airspace.
The inevitable inclusion of unmanned aircraft within the skies poses significant challenges such as onboard control safety devices, enhancements to existing air traffic control (ATC) protocols, and unmanned traffic management (UTM). The common denominator to these challenges is the need for accurate, reliable and high integrity PNT.
Airborne position and situational awareness guaranteed
Drones are revolutionising responsiveness to emergencies. Able to deliver medical supplies, food and aid into inaccessible areas, or simply reduce energy spent on deliveries to remote locations, the adoption of drones as a utilitarian tool is happening globally.
Ranging from rotorcraft with limited range to large fixed wing aircraft with a range of many hundreds of kilometers drones have a singular requirement for absolute real-time location in order to be safely deployed.
Trustworthy GNSS position is the critical factor in whether a drone can be launched or stays grounded.
airspace. management. safety.
Helix’s Dielectrix antennas meet the needs of today’s drone operations and pave the way for drone swarm operation in busy air corridors:
We have developed and patent-protected a completely novel approach to creating the smallest antennas capable of delivering world-beating performance for GNSS and terrestrial or satellite data communications. It combines material science, RF innovation, and precision manufacturing, and we call it DielectriX.
Maximum signal strength from maximum number of satellites
DielectriX antennas naturally have a cardioid reception pattern. This means that the antenna’s gain is almost as strong at or even below the horizon as it is in the direct overhead. Clearly this optimises signal strength from every satellite in direct line of sight from any point on the Earth’s surface or at the operating altitude of drones. This capability can even be used to detect the drone’s attitude and enable flight control system inputs for flightpath corrections.
Resilience to interference and jamming
GNSS signals are transmitted in narrow sections of the L-band (1-2GHz), which makes a DielectriX filtering antenna highly desirable to ensure adjacent band interference is ignored. By tuning tightly to the desired signals wide-band jamming is mitigated as the antenna is able to discern the satellite signals within the individual GNSS frequency bands.
Pinpoint accuracy
Anticipated use of drone corridors and the keenly awaited deployment of manned drones as part of the vision for airborne urban mobility means that every drone or aircraft must know and report it’s position with the highest accuracy in real-time. Dielectrix antennas ensure that position computation is reliable at all times.
Small and lightweight
DielectriX antennas are so compact, that even the multi-antenna arrays that will be required for anti-jamming/spoofing can be easily managed in the drone’s payload.
