Project Brief:

The project's sponsor is the Army's electronic proving ground (EPG) based out of Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. EPG is measuring and mapping the near field signal strengths of the antenna farm on a vehicle under development. EPG has built a large structure, a gantry, which suspends a stack of probes mounted on a vertical post over the vehicle. The probes can be moved to position the probes anywhere within the plane above the antenna farm. The gantry is heavy and difficult to move and the only current means of getting the probe measurements is to copy them by hand from a visual display. Our project has two parts. First, develop a system that is able to position the signal-strength probes, eliminating the need to move it manually. The system needs to have a high level of precision to allow movement around objects in the measurement field and facilitate a repeatability of positioning within �1 cm. The second part of the project is to automate the data acquisition, to develop new software that will interface with the display module and directly download the data into an EXCEL spreadsheet. The requirements are that no components of either system can interfere with the integrity of the test which means that there can be no reflections created within the range of the test. Any system components that might interfere with the accuracy of the test, and all reflective materials will be placed below the plane of the test. Both systems will significantly reduce the time and labor requirements for the testing evolutions and the data acquisition system will further reduce the possibility of transposition and/or transcription errors. See the Project Description page for a full project breakdown.

Team Members:

Brian Wallace, Matt Enga, Bryan Pyke and Kenji Yamamoto. Visit the Team Members page for background information on the team members as well as each members' responsibilities and major contributions to the project.

Project Presentation: