A Novel Polarization and DOA Reliable Auto-Tracking Antenna System

In this study, a novel compact auto-tracking antenna system was developed to ensure the high reliability of practical applications. The system consisted of three antennas (two anchor antennas and a tag antenna), three ultra-wide band (UWB) chips, and one compact turntable. On the anchor side, two highly linearly polarized antennas with a short baseline were installed on an auto-control turntable. Two UWB chips were integrated with the two anchor antennas to extract the phase and amplitude information of the receiving signal. On the tag side, a wide-beam circularly polarized antenna with a UWB chip was installed to mitigate the effect of the tag’s pose on the phase measurement. Using a correlation matching algorithm based on the phase difference of arrival, high tracking reliability with a 90% success rate was achieved for all practical direction-of-arrivals and various axial rotating angles of the tag over the maximum radiation deflection angles between –90^◦ and 135^◦. The operation distance of a demo self-balanced two-wheeled vehicle was 20 m.