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Phase II Final Report - NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts

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Chapter 4.0 Entomopter Flight Operations<br />

4.2 Rover-centric Entomopter Navigation<br />

The problem of which Entomopter is detected by the refueling rover's radar is easily resolved by<br />

having each Entomopter respond to the rover's radar interrogation signal with a unique code.<br />

This code would contain a vehicle-identification code followed by useful in<strong>for</strong>mation, such as<br />

the Entomopter's measured air speed, fuel remaining, vehicle-health monitoring parameters, and<br />

altitude above the planet's surface (which would serve both as sanity check <strong>for</strong> the rover radar,<br />

since it already has an estimate of this value, as well as new data were the Entomopter flying<br />

over a canyon, the bottom of which is occluded from the view of the rover's radar).<br />

The Entomopter's response to the rover's radar interrogation signal need not be an emission of<br />

energy. Rather, the Entomopter can remodulate the radar return by intelligently modulating its<br />

own radar cross-section. The choice of frequency <strong>for</strong> this remodulation must be different than<br />

the expected Doppler range presented by the Entomopter (above that expected from the effects<br />

of wing-beating) so that the rover can distinguish the Entomopter communication from that of<br />

the wing beating. A modulation of the radar cross-section is an amplitude modulation (AM) phenomenon<br />

and will not be affected by the Doppler shift. Very low power methods of modulating<br />

the radar cross-section of the Entomopter can be achieved by solid state means. A significant<br />

advantage to this technique is the obvious frequency deconfliction that results from multiple<br />

Entomopters not having to radiate simultaneously.<br />

As shown in Figure 4-4, the<br />

in<strong>for</strong>mation about Entomopter<br />

locations, rover range, and obstacle<br />

locations can be impressed<br />

upon the interrogating radar signal<br />

as a frequency that is above<br />

the expected Doppler due to the<br />

skin return. The flapping-induced<br />

Doppler will not enter into this<br />

because only the radial closing<br />

rate of the Entomopter with the<br />

refueling rover will contribute to<br />

the Doppler shift seen by the<br />

Entomopter.<br />

For maximum flight speeds on<br />

the order of 30 m/s, the Doppler<br />

shift seen on the radar carrier by<br />

a painted Entomopter will be<br />

Figure 4-4: Rover-centric In<strong>for</strong>mation Paths Used in<br />

Navigation<br />

ƒd (plat<strong>for</strong>m) = 2(30 m/s)(100 cm/m) ÷ 0.3 cm = 20 kHz.<br />

Choosing a frequency modulation <strong>for</strong> the 95 GHz carrier that is ten times this value (200 kHz)<br />

would provide adequate FM in<strong>for</strong>mation bandwidth while at the same time avoiding any corruption<br />

due to Doppler shift.<br />

233

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