MmWave Beamforming for UAV Communications with Unstable Beam Pointing

Millimeter wave(mmWave) communications of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) have drawn dramatic attentions for its flexibility on a variety of applications.Recently,channel tracking base on the spatial features has been proposed to solve the problem of beam misalignments due to the UAV navigation.However,unstable beam pointing caused by the non-ideal beam tracking environment may impact the performance of mmWave systems significantly.In this paper,an improved beamforming method is presented to overcome this shortcoming.Firstly,the effect of the beam deviation is analyzed through the establishment of the equivalent data rate.Then,combining the quantification of spatial angle and the improved orthogonal matching pursuit(OMP) algorithm,an optimized beam corresponding to the beam deviation is obtained.Simulation results show that the optimized beam of the proposed approach can effectively improve the spectral efficiency without improving the complexity when the beam pointing is unstable.

An Error Equivalent Model of Revolute Joints with Clearances for Antenna Pointing Mechanisms

Joint clearances in antenna pointing mechanisms lead to uncertainty in function deviation. Current studies mainly focus on radial clearance of revolute joints, while axial clearance has rarely been taken into consideration. In fact, own?ing to errors from machining and assembly, thermal deformation and so forth, practically, axial clearance is inevitable in the joint. In this study, an error equivalent model(EEM) of revolute joints is proposed with considering both radial and axial clearances. Compared to the planar model of revolute joints only considering radial clearance, the journal motion inside the bearing is more abundant and matches the reality better in the EEM. The model is also extended for analyzing the error distribution of a spatial dual?axis("X–Y" type) antenna pointing mechanism of Spot?beam antennas which especially demand a high pointing accuracy. Three case studies are performed which illustrates the internal relation between radial clearance and axial clearance. It is found that when the axial clearance is big enough, the physical journal can freely realize both translational motion and rotational motion. While if the axial clearance is limited, the motion of the physical journal will be restricted. Analysis results indicate that the consideration of both radial and axial clearances in the revolute joint describes the journal motion inside the bearing more precise. To further validate the proposed model, a model of the EEM is designed and fabricated. Some suggestions on the design of revolute joints are also provided.

Two-step Structural Design of Mesh Antennas for High Beam Pointing Accuracy

A well-designed reflector surface with high beam pointing accuracy in electromagnetic performance is of practical significance to the space application of cable mesh reflector antennas. As for space requirements, cir- cular polarizations are widely used in spaceborne antennas, which usually lead to a beam shift for offset reflectors and influence the beam pointing accuracy. A two-step structural design procedure is proposed to overcome the beam squint phenomenon for high beam pointing accuracy design of circularly polarized offset cable mesh reflectors. A simple structural optimal design and an integrated structural electromagnetic optimization are combined to alleviate the beam squint effect of circular polarizations. It is imple- mented by cable pretension design and adjustment to shape the offset cable mesh surface. Besides, in order to increase the efficiency of integrated optimization, an update Broy- den-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno （BFGS） Hessian matrix is employed in the optimization iteration with sequential quadratic programming. A circularly polarized offset cable mesh reflector is utilized to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed procedure. A high beam pointing accuracy in order of 0.0001~ of electromagnetic performance is achieved.

A new calibration model for pointing a radio telescope that considers nonlinear errors in the azimuth axis

A new calibration model of a radio telescope that includes pointing error is presented, which considers nonlinear errors in the azimuth axis. For a large radio telescope, in particular for a telescope with a turntable, it is difficult to correct pointing errors using a traditional linear calibration model, because errors produced by the wheel-on-rail or center bearing structures are generally nonlinear. Fourier expansion is made for the oblique error and parameters describing the inclination direction along the azimuth axis based on the linear calibration model, and a new calibration model for pointing is derived. The new pointing model is applied to the 40 m radio telescope administered by Yunnan Observatories, which is a telescope that uses a turntable. The results show that this model can significantly reduce the residual systematic errors due to nonlinearity in the azimuth axis compared with the linear model.

Effect of the alidade thermal behavior on the pointing accuracy of a large radio telescope

The alidade’s non-uniform temperature field of a large radio telescope is very obvious under solar radiation.Estimating a radio telescope’s pointing errors,caused by the alidade deformation under solar radiation,is significant to improve the telescope’s pointing accuracy.To study the effect of the alidade thermal behavior on the pointing accuracy of a large radio telescope,a temperature experiment is first carried out in a 70-m radio telescope on a sunny day.According to the measured results,the temperature distribution rule of the alidade is summarized initially.In addition,the alidade’s temperature field is calculated by finite element thermal analysis.The simulated results are proved to be in good agreement with the experimental results.Finally,the alidade deformation under solar radiation is computed by finite element thermalstructure coupling analysis.The telescope’s pointing errors caused by alidade deformation are estimated via the alidade’s node displacements.The final results show that the effect of alidade thermal behavior on the telescope’s elevation pointing errorsΔε2+Δεr is much more than the effect on the telescope’s crosselevation pointing errorsΔε1.The maximum ofΔε2+Δεr is more than 45″,while the maximum ofΔε1 is less than 6″.This study can provide valuable references for improving the pointing accuracy of large radio telescopes.

A Magnetically Levitated Precise Pointing Mechanism for Application to Optical Communication Terminals

Increasing data bandwidth requirements from spacecraft systems is beginning to pressure existing microwave communications systems. Free-Space optical communications allows for larger bandwidths for lower relative power consumption, smaller size and weight when compared to the microwave equivalent. However optical communication does have a formidable challenge that needs to be overcome before the advantages of the technology can be fully utilized. In order for the communication to be successful the transmitter and receiver terminals need to be pointed with a high accuracy (generally in the order of ≤10 μradians) for the duration of communication. In this paper we present a new concept for the precise pointing of optical communications terminals (termed the Precise Pointing Mechanism). In this new concept we combine the separate pointing mechanisms of a conventional optical terminal into a single mechanism, reducing the complexity and cost of the optical bench. This is achieved by electromagnetically actuating the whole telescope assembly in 6 degrees-of-freedom with an angular resolution of less than ±3 μradians within a 10 (Az. El.) field of view and linear resolution of ±2 μm. This paper presents the new pointing mechanism and discusses the modelling, simulation and experimental work undertaken using the bespoke engineering model developed.

A Precise Calibration Method on Phase Center of Uplink Antenna Array Considering Its Actual Pointing

With regard to the inferior techniques and low accuracy of phase center calibration of an antenna array, this paper proposes a new calibration method considering the actual antenna pointing by introducing a precise engineering surveying technique to measure the real state of antennas. First, an industrial photogrammetric system is utilized to obtain the coordinates of points on antenna panels in different postures, and the actual pointing of the mechanical axis is obtained via least-squares fitting. Then, based on this, the coordinates of antenna rotation center are obtained by seeking the intersection of mechanical axes via using the matrix method. Finally, the mechanical axis in arbitrary postures is estimated based on the inverse-angle weighting interpolation method, and the reliable phase center is obtained by moving a fixed length from the projective center along the mechanical axis. An uplink antenna array including three ? 3 m antennas is taken as experimental object, and all photogrammetric coordinate systems are unified by the engineering control network, with each antenna phase center precisely calibrated via the proposed method. The results of electrical signal synthesis indicate that this method can effectively overcome the influence of gravity deformation and mechanical installation error, and enhance the synthetic signal magnitude of the uplink antenna array.

Study on the pointing model of a slant-axis terahertz antenna

This paper describes the establishment and verification of an accurate pointing model for a1.2 m aperture slant-axis terahertz antenna.A new analytical pointing model for the slant-axis antenna is presented based on an analogy to that of the alt-azimuth antennas.Furthermore,extra error terms are added to the pointing model based on the structure and mechanical analysis of the slant-axis antenna.To verify the pointing model experimentally,a pointing error measurement method based on photogrammetric techniques is proposed.Using this method,pointing behaviors of the antenna are accurately measured without the aid of astronomical observations,and major sources of the pointing errors are measured individually by photogrammetry and their respective coefficients are compared with those in the analytical pointing model.The results show that an extended pointing model consisting 21 error terms can significantly reduce the residual systematic errors compared with the traditional model,more details are given in the following sections.

A Reverse-Design Strategy for the Track Error of the Qi Tai Telescope Based on Pointing Accuracy

The Qi Tai Telescope(QTT),which has a 110 m aperture,is planned to be the largest scale steerable tele-scope in the world.Ideally,the telescope’s repeated pointing accuracy error should be less than 2.5 arc seconds(arcsec);thus,the telescope structure must satisfy ultra-high precision requirements.In this pur-suit,the present research envisages a reverse-design method for the track surface to reduce the difficulty of the telescope’s design and manufacture.First,the distribution characteristics of the test data for the track error were verified using the skewness coefficient and kurtosis coefficient methods.According to the distribution characteristics,the azimuth track error was simulated by a two-scale model.The error of the long period and short amplitude was characterized as large-scale and described by a trigonometric function,while the short period and high amplitude error was characterized as small-scale and simulated by a fractal function.Based on the two-scale model,effect of the error on the pointing accuracy was deduced.Subsequently,the relationship between the root mean square(RMS)of the track error and the RMS of the pointing accuracy error of the telescope was deduced.Finally,the allowable RMS value of the track error was derived from the allowable pointing accuracy errors.To validate the effectiveness of the new design method,two typical radio telescopes(the Green Bank Telescope(GBT)and the Large Millimeter Telescope(LMT))were selected as experimental examples.Through comparison,the theoretical calculated values of the pointing accuracy of the telescope were consistent with the measured values,with a maximum error of less than 10%.

Effect of beam-pointing errors on bistatic SAR imaging

The purpose is to conduct a research in the energy variation of echo wave and the imaging effect caused by the aero bistatic SAR pointing errors. Based on the moving geometry configuration of aero bistatic SAR, a model of beam pointing errors is built. Based on this, the azimuth Doppler frequency center estimation caused by these errors and the limitation to the beam pointing synchronization error are studied, and then the imaging result of different errors are analyzed. The computer＇s simulations are provided to prove the validity of the above analysis.

Acquisition,Pointing and Tracking System for Shipborne Space Laser Communication without Prior Information

A space laser communication acquisition,pointing and tracking(APT)system based on the beacon laser is designed without prior information.And then,a new target scanning method and a pointing and tracking algorithm are proposed.The target scanning mode is the round-trip triangular wave scanning,and it means that scanning track of the PAN-TILT platform follows the triangular wave repeatedly.For the pointing and tracking algorithm,the beacon laser is used as the auxiliary aiming light source.The position of the beacon laser in the viewfield of the complementary metal oxide semiconductor(CMOS)camera is calculated by the centroid algorithm.In order to realize the target tracking,the joint control method of the angle control and the angular velocity control is used.The simulation and experimental results show that the APT system can achieve full coverage scanning in the scanning area and capture the target in one scanning cycle successfully.After capturing the PAN-TILT platform,the pointing and tracking algorithm can track the PAN-TILT platform quickly and accurately,and the tracking accuracy is up to 0.22 mrad.

Pointing the Way Forward

THE Central Economic Work Conference （CEWC）, a much-watched annual economic meeting in China, was held in Beijing on December 9-11, 2014, to focus on lowering the risks of a downturn and speeding up reforms in key areas to adjust to the ＂new normal＂ in 2015, China＇s central authorities decided at the meeting that the country will stick to its prudent monetary policy and proactive fiscal policy, Fiscal policy will be more forceful in 2015 and monetary policy will strike a balance between tight and loose, Emphasis was put on economic progress while maintaining stability： great significance was attached to structural rebalancing and improving the quality and efficiency of growth,

Image motion and experimental study of a 0.1″space pointing measuring instrument for micro-vibration conditions

There exists an increasing need for Milli-Arc-Seconds(MAS)accuracy pointing measurement for current and future space systems.To meet the 0.1″space pointing measurement accuracy requirements of spacecraft in future,the influence of spacecraft micro-vibration on a 0.1″Space Pointing Measuring Instrument(SPMI)is studied.A Quasi-Zero Stiffness Device(QZSD)with adaptive adjustment and variable stroke was proposed.Then,a series of micro-vibration experiments of the SPMI were carried out.The influence of the micro-vibration generated by Guidance Navigation Control(GNC)attitude control components under different attitudes on the SPMI was analyzed.Point spread function of image motion in micro-vibration was also derived.Further,the changes of image motion under the micro-vibration environment were evaluated by extracting the gray centroid of the images,and the experiment processes and results are deeply discussed.The results show that the firstorder frequency of the QZSD system is 0.114 Hz,and it is induced by a double pendulum system;the image motion of single flywheel spinning reached 0.015 pixels;whilst the image motion reached 0.03 pixels when three flywheels are combined spinning.These latest findings provide a beneficial theoretical and technical support for the development of spacecraft with 0·1″pointing accuracy.

Decoupling of the position and angular errors in laser pointing with a neural network method

In laser-pointing-related applications,when only the centroid of a laser spot is considered,then the position and angular errors of the laser beam are often coupled together.In this study,the decoupling of the position and angular errors is achieved from one single spot image by utilizing a neural network technique.In particular,the successful application of the neural network technique relies on novel experimental procedures,including using an appropriate small-focal-length lens and tilting the detector,to physically enlarge the contrast of different spots.This technique,with the corresponding new system design,may prove to be instructive in the future design of laser-pointing-related systems.

Machine-vision-based acquisition,pointing,and tracking system for underwater wireless optical communications

Due to the proliferation of underwater vehicles and sensors,underwater wireless optical communication(UWOC)is a key enabler for ocean exploration with a strong reliance on short-range bandwidth-intensive communications.A stable optical link is of primary importance for UWOC.A compact,low-power,and low-cost acquisition,pointing,and tracking(APT)system is proposed and experimentally demonstrated to realign the optical link within 0.04 s,even when the UWOC transmitter and receiver are in relative motion.The system successfully achieves rapid auto-alignment through a 4 m tap water channel with a relatively large number of bubbles.Furthermore,the required minimum illumination value is measured to be as low as7.1 lx,implying that the proposed APT scheme is robust to dim underwater environments.Meanwhile,mobility experiments are performed to verify the performance of the APT system.The proposed system can rapidly and automatically align moving targets in complex and unstable underwater environments,which can potentially boost the practical applications of UWOC.

基于ConvMixer架构的高效点云分类方法

近年来,视觉Transformer模型在点云分类等三维计算机视觉任务中显现出潜在的优越性,但其有效性来源仍然模糊不清。研究它们在视觉任务中的性能是完全归功于Transformer结构本身的优越性,还是至少部分得益于使用局部块作为输入表示,是非常必要的。受此启发,本文提出了一种简单但仍然有效的点云分类和分割模型PointConvMixer,用ConvMixer架构取代了Point-BERT中的标准Transformer。PointConvMixer在ModelNet40数据集上的整体分类准确率达到92.3%,在ShapeNet Parts数据集上进行点云部分分割时mIOUI和mIOUC分别为85.4%和83.9%,均优于基于Transformer的对比模型。此外,本文还进一步提出PPFConvMixer,其利用高效的局部特征描述符PPF增强了PointConvMixer,从而优化了点云分类性能。在查询半径为0.25m时,PPFConvMixer的总体分类准确率达到了93.8%。

THREE KINDS OF DENTABILITIES IN BANACH SPACES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

In this paper,we study some dentabilities in Banach spaces which are closely related to the famous Radon-Nikodym property.We introduce the concepts of the weak^(*)-weak denting point and the weak^(*)-weak^(*)denting point of a set.These are the generalizations of the weak^(*)denting point of a set in a dual Banach space.By use of the weak^(*)-weak denting point,we characterize the very smooth space,the point of weak^(*)-weak continuity,and the extreme point of a unit ball in a dual Banach space.Meanwhile,we also characterize an approximatively weak compact Chebyshev set in dual Banach spaces.Moreover,we define the nearly weak dentability in Banach spaces,which is a generalization of near dentability.We prove the necessary and sufficient conditions of the reflexivity by nearly weak dentability.We also obtain that nearly weak dentability is equivalent to both the approximatively weak compactness of Banach spaces and the w-strong proximinality of every closed convex subset of Banach spaces.

Coexistence of Dirac and Weyl points in non-centrosymmetric semimetal NbIrTe_(4)

Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations methods,we investigate the electronic structures and topological properties of ternary tellurides NbIrTe_(4),a candidate for type-II Weyl semimetal.We demonstrate the presence of several Fermi arcs connecting their corresponding Weyl points on both termination surfaces of the topological material.Our analysis reveals the existence of Dirac points,in addition to Weyl points,giving both theoretical and experimental evidences of the coexistence of Dirac and Weyl points in a single material.These findings not only confirm NbIrTe_(4) as a unique topological semimetal but also open avenues for exploring novel electronic devices based on its coexisting Dirac and Weyl fermions.

Prediction of collapse process and tipping points for mutualistic and competitive networks with k-core method

Ecosystems generally have the self-adapting ability to resist various external pressures or disturbances,which is always called resilience.However,once the external disturbances exceed the tipping points of the system resilience,the consequences would be catastrophic,and eventually lead the ecosystem to complete collapse.We capture the collapse process of ecosystems represented by plant-pollinator networks with the k-core nested structural method,and find that a sufficiently weak interaction strength or a sufficiently large competition weight can cause the structure of the ecosystem to collapse from its smallest k-core towards its largest k-core.Then we give the tipping points of structure and dynamic collapse of the entire system from the one-dimensional dynamic function of the ecosystem.Our work provides an intuitive and precise description of the dynamic process of ecosystem collapse under multiple interactions,and provides theoretical insights into further avoiding the occurrence of ecosystem collapse.

Exceptional points and quantum dynamics in a non-Hermitian two-qubit system

We study the exceptional-point(EP) structure and the associated quantum dynamics in a system consisting of a non-Hermitian qubit and a Hermitian qubit. We find that the system possesses two sets of EPs, which divide the systemparameter space into PT-symmetry unbroken, partially broken and fully broken regimes, each with distinct quantumdynamics characteristics. Particularly, in the partially broken regime, while the PT-symmetry is generally broken in the whole four-dimensional Hilbert space, it is preserved in a two-dimensional subspace such that the quantum dynamics in the subspace are similar to those in the PT-symmetry unbroken regime. In addition, we reveal that the competition between the inter-qubit coupling and the intra-qubit driving gives rise to a complex pattern in the EP variation with system parameters.