A system for evolving antennas in-situ

In order for aerospace vehicles, especially unmanned spacecraft, to maximize performance and ensure survival, electronic components require the ability to reconfigure themselves intelligently to repair damage and enhance performance. Evolvable hardware, particularly evolvable electronic circuitry, is being vigorously explored as a means to accomplish this. However, antennas are also excellent candidates for evolvable hardware, as shown by the research presented here. The evolvable antenna system in this paper shows that an evolutionary algorithm and a reconfigurable antenna can be used to optimize signal reception in-situ, i.e., in real surroundings, rather than in simulation or even on a carefully controlled antenna range. Several reconfigurable antenna topologies were tested, and all were able to outperform a conventional antenna