| This thesis presents a method to determine the angular orientation of a projectile in flight, by mechanically scanning a linearly polarized, microwave reference source. In particular, the research focuses on real time measurement of the roll angle. A 10 GHz, linearly polarized electromagnetic wave is radiated toward the projectile by means of a 10 dB horn antenna. The projectile is equipped with a backward facing 10 dB horn antenna, which has orientation, namely roll angle, sensitivity. The response of the received signal follows a cosine law, producing a maximum when the receiver orientation is aligned with the transmitting polarization. As expected, the peak response shifts in response to the roll-angle, however, unambiguous recovery of the angle requires synchronization with the polarization orientation of the source. This has been achieved through the use of a unique transmitter power sequence, which includes a start-of-scan and end-of-scan time stamp.;Based on the above concept, a complete system comprising a polarization scanning reference source, the receiving antenna mounted on a vehicle, and pertinent electronic components, has been tested for both line of sight and non-line of sight applications. The transmitter antenna, mounted on a computer controlled stepper motor allowed source polarization to be scanned from -90° to 90° in 0.3 seconds. The receiving antenna continuously samples the received electromagnetic background at the source frequency and uses a RF detector and a data acquisition system to record the subsequent time-varying voltage signal, which is processed to recover the roll-angle.;Measurements in an anechoic chamber were used to confirm the efficacy of the system and field trials, using a transmitter power of 2 W, were successfully demonstrated over a distance of 0.15 miles. The distance limit can be extended by increasing the transmitter power, receiver sensitivity and increase source frequency. |
