Whether your product is intended to be used in defense or civilian applications, the performance of today’s leading edge communication systems are demanding efficient, reliable and accurate antenna positioning. In either portable or permanent system installations, RF and SATCOM systems require high antenna pointing accuracy at all times and under extreme environmental conditions.
Azimuth and elevation angles are vital components for accurate antenna positioning and optimum system performance. The complex nature of communication systems presents significant challenges to obtaining maximum accuracy- reliably, quickly, and repeatedly. Manual antenna pointing and alignment can be cumbersome and time consuming for your customer. Since most systems measure the earth’s horizontal magnetic field to determine heading, unwanted magnetic disturbances, whether intrinsically produced by hard and soft iron components on the antenna platform, or from transient external sources cause errors in the heading output of conventional analog or digital magnetic compasses.
A complete system integrating MEMS inertial sensors, magnetometers, and algorithms to process and manage sensor data is required to overcome the difficulties of this challenging application. For many applications this must be accomplished cost effectively within a small, lightweight package with minimal power demands on the system.
