Robotic Arm-based Antenna Metrology System for Aerospace Applications

Robotic arm based antenna metrology presents interesting opportunities to investigate novel approaches to traditional antenna and communication system evaluation. In 2017, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) began exploring the use of a robotic arm for antenna measurements to address unique needs for traceability and in-situ testing of a novel phased array antenna designed for unmanned aerial systems (UAS). A measurement system, named Portable Laser Guided Robotic Metrology (PLGRM) was developed to support field measurements of the antenna in the aircraft hangar, prior to flight. Since that initial development of the PLGRM system, many additional capabilities have been added to support a wide variety of aerospace applications. This paper provides an overview of the system itself, existing capabilities, benefits over other measurement approaches, and future work.