PHASED ARRAY TRANSMISSION REFLECTED OFF ROTOR BLADE TO TARGET

• Main Authors: LOVSETH, Jonathan A, GRAF, Joseph T
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 23.03.2022
• Subjects: AEROPLANES; AIRCRAFT; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS; AVIATION; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; COSMONAUTICS; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; HELICOPTERS; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; TESTING; TRANSMISSION; TRANSPORTING; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

A system including an aircraft (102). A phased array (110) may be configured to transmit electromagnetic (EM) energy toward rotor blades (108) and receive EM energy in a direction from the rotor blades. A processor (306) may be configured to: determine or obtain rotor blade information; determine or obtain aircraft information; based on the rotor blade information and the aircraft information, determine (a) a time to transmit EM energy or receive EM energy and (b) an angle to transmit EM energy or receive EM energy; and based on the rotor blade information and the aircraft information, control the phased array to adjust a beam pointing angle and to transmit EM energy for a duration at the beam pointing angle. The phased array (110) may be configured to transmit EM energy for the duration at the beam pointing angle, wherein the transmitted EM energy is configured to reflect off a rotor blade toward a target.