Design Of The Master Control System Of The Array Antenna Based On The VxWorks

The antenna is widely used in communications, radio, television, radar and navigation radio systems. With the development of a variety of needs, the signal feed combination of the change of the antenna geometry and materials to control the current of the whole antenna and the superposed directional radiation characteristics have been unable to meet the requirements, but which also promoted the development of new types of the antennas, the array antenna is one of the research. Array antenna is defined by two or more similar combination of radiation element constitutes an appropriate antenna, the antenna can be freer to control the superposition in space and thus control the directional characteristics of radiation. Related research has shown that the array antenna has many unique advantages. But it is with more antenna elements, short working period, complex electromagnetic environment and required high stability characteristics. This made high demands for the control system. The paper is based on the array antenna control requirements, designed the master control system based on the real-time operating system.The master control system as the whole array antenna system control center needs to connect multiple subsystems, receive control commands and data, analysis and process this information, then send the information to the slave machines under the control strategy and receive the feedback information from the slave machines. After a full investigation, for the control command of the array antenna system, the hardware of the master control system is X86 architecture CPU that could provide powerful processing capability, the operating system is VxWorks real-time operating system, use the Ethernet port to accept remote control and feedback information, RS485 serial port to receive external data, set up the CAN LAN to connect the numerous slave machines, design the application with multi-task model, achieve a variety of the array antenna control algorithms, thus achieve the control of the array antenna.The user interface is designed in the Windows XP platform, use TCP/IP protocol communication with the master control system, and receive the feedback information from the master control system. Using Apache Log4cxx log system to record the user's operating and the feedback information from the master control system.After experimental tests, the master control system can basically meet the array antenna control requirements. In the design process, gave a full account of the system's expandability, modular design, and initially completed the user interface in the VxWorks platform that used the WindML graphical component, these researches provided a good technical reserves for the design of next generation control system.