Drone mapping of cell phone signals

Student team will develop, build, and demonstrate an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) quadcopter system to map antenna radiation patterns, to measure cell phone reception signals.

Students will be expected to integrate the RF measurement circuit with the on board flight control computer. This will require a minimum of two microcontrollers: The flight controller that interfaces with flight functions and GPS, and the RF measurement microcontroller that measures RF field patterns. Both microcontrollers should be interfaced.

Students should only sign up for this project if they are interested and willing to take on a very challenging, multidisciplinary project, with important applicaitons in wireless communications, and work independently to assess opportunities and make and implement design decisions. The field is rapidly evloving, and students will need to make decisions based on a rapidly changing industry. This includes the legal, social, regulatory, and technological advances and issues. Interaction with FAA will be expected for this project. The project will must likely be obsolete by the time the school year is over. Students that cannot handle this workload, pace, and committement should not apply.