A Low-Profile, Top-Loaded, Multielement, Monopole Antenna for Compact UGV Systems

This communication presents a low-profile and efficient low-VHF antenna designed for compact Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). An effective miniaturization strategy for a top-loaded multi-element monopole antenna is proposed to improve its gain while maintaining a low profile. The approach introduces multiple closely-spaced short vertical radiating elements and a structurally-constructed 180-degree phase shifter connecting the elements on a small ground plane. The phase shifter enables electric currents flowing through the vertical elements to be in phase, resulting in enhanced radiation without increasing the antenna profile. In order to improve the antenna bandwidth, a monopole configuration with a sleeve feed and capacitive top-loading is adapted. The proposed antenna optimized for a compact UGV via parametric analysis has a height of 0.028λ at 42 MHz (the corresponding electrical size ka = 0.24). The measured performance of an antenna prototype shows the 3-dB bandwidth of 0.67 MHz and peak gain of -2.5 dBi. The proposed design can achieve more than 16 % reduction in lateral dimensions and 1-dB improvement in gain compared to the state-of-the-art design with similar topology. The performance of the antenna integrated on an actual UGV system is also evaluated by experiments.