Three Antenna Ranges Based on Articualted Robotic Arms at the National Institute of Standards and TechnologyDescribing Usability for Over-the-Air and Standard Near-Field Measuremnts

Published

December 3, 2017

Author(s)

David R. Novotny, Josh Gordon, Michael S. Allman, Jeffrey R. Guerrieri, Alexandra Curtin

Abstract

NIST has developed an antenna range that uses coordinated industrial robotic systems for measuring milli-meter wave (mmWave) antenna patterns and gain. The Configurable Robotic milli-meter Antenna (CROMMA) facility employs a multi-axis articulated serial robotic arm to place probes accurately around a test article. The positional and temporal capabilities, shown by CROMMA, has become a springboard to develop two new robotic ranges for use primarily from 0.5-30 GHz. Both of these systems are based upon commercial coordinated kinematic systems with multiple degrees of freedom. The CROMMA facility has two offshoots. The first is the dual robotic-arm Large Antenna Positioning System (LAPS). It is designed to perform large volume scanning with an emphasis on Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and Over-the-Air (OTA) testing. The second system employs a seven-axis robotic arm to perform communication testing of Single Input Single Output (SISO) systems and will be used to establish modulated and continuous-wave field references. We will discuss the advantages, limitations and techniques employed to use these commercial robotic systems for accurate time- sensitive positioning and coordination with communications measurement equipment.

Conference Dates

December 4-7, 2017

Conference Location

Tsukuba, JP

Conference Title

2017 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

antenna, measurement, OTA, near-field, gain

Citation

Novotny, D. , Gordon, J. , Allman, M. , Guerrieri, J. and Curtin, A. (2017), Three Antenna Ranges Based on Articualted Robotic Arms at the National Institute of Standards and TechnologyDescribing Usability for Over-the-Air and Standard Near-Field Measuremnts, 2017 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications, Tsukuba, JP, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=924086 (Accessed October 10, 2025)