DocumentCode :
1264048
Title :
Inclusion of rotor blade modulation in hardware-in-the-loop testing of RF systems
Author :
Griffith, Khadir A. ; Gupta, Inder J.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH, USA
Volume :
47
Issue :
3
fYear :
2011
fDate :
7/1/2011 12:00:00 AM
Firstpage :
1580
Lastpage :
1593
Abstract :
RF systems onboard rotorcrafts are susceptible to a periodic variation in both the magnitude and phase of the received signals due to the rotation of the rotor blades. This is often referred to as rotor blade modulation (RBM). As one might imagine, RBM has the potential to degrade a given RF system; therefore, RBM must be accounted for when characterizing the performance of any RF system onboard a rotorcraft. One can use field tests or hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing to characterize a particular RF system. Typically field tests are very expensive, and therefore it is beneficial to use HITL testing. In this paper we present three approaches that can be used to include RBM in HITL testing of RF systems. The first two approaches make no approximations and thus provide an exact model of the RBM. The main drawback of these two approaches is that they are not suitable for implementation in HITL testing. Thus we have developed the "approximate simulator," which can be used to include RBM in HITL testing of RF systems. The accuracy of the approximate simulator is demonstrated by comparing the approximated signal received by an antenna mounted on a model rotorcraft with the measured signal received by the antenna. The results show that a very accurate model of the RBM is obtained using the approximate simulator. Furthermore this accuracy is achieved with implementation costs that are far less than that of the two exact approaches.
Keywords :
aircraft antennas; approximation theory; helicopters; HITL testing; RBM; RF system onboard rotorcraft; antennas; approximation theory; field test; hardware-in-the-loop testing; periodic variation; rotor blade modulation; signal reception; Antenna measurements; Approximation methods; Blades; Receiving antennas; Rotors; Time frequency analysis;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0018-9251
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TAES.2011.5937251
Filename :
5937251
Link To Document :
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