FOUR INPUT STACKED MICROWAVE ANTENNA

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO OBTAIN A SPECIFIC HARDWARE DESIGN THAT ALLEVIATES THE CURRENT DEFICIENCY IN THE PRESENT LINE-OF-SIGHT MICROWAVE VIDEO DATA LINK USED FOR ROBOTIC VEHICLE CONTROL. TWO HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED. THE FIRST CONFIGURATION IS AN EFFICIENT FOUR-INPUT STACKED ANTENNA THAT IS EXPECTED TO YIELD LESS THAN 0.5 DB OF LOSS PER CHANNEL. THE SECOND CONFIGURATION IS A LOW LOSS MULTIPLEXER THAT, DEPENDING ON SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS, MAY BE COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE WITH LESS THAN 1 DB OF LOSS PER CHANNEL. ENGINEERING SKETCHES FOR THE ANTENNA DEIGN AND OUTLINE DRAWINGS FOR THE MULTIPLEXER WILL BE PROVIDED FOR COMPLETE HARDWARE PROTOTYPE FABRICATION AND TEST IN PHASE II. BREADBOARD PROTOTYPES FOR SOME OF THE KEY COMPONENTS OF THE ANTENNA WILL BE FABRICATED AND BENCH TESTED IN PHASE I. TEST RESULTS AND PROCEDURES WILL BE DOCUMENTED. A SECOND OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO RECOMMEND A HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR ACCOMPLISHING THE VIDEO TRANSMISSION FUNCTION WITH A NON-LINE-OF-SIGHT SYSTEM. THIS APPROACH WILL BE BASED ON DIGITAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND WILL USE DATA COMPRESSION. DETAILS WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE PHASE II PROPOSAL.