Journal of Radio Electronics. eISSN 1684-1719. 2026. ¹4
Full text in Russian (pdf)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30898/1684-1719.2026.4.11
IMPROVING THE ACCURACY OF DIRECTION FINDING
IN LOW-ELEMENT DIGITAL ANTENNA ARRAYS
BY USING VIRTUAL ANTENNA ELEMENTS
V.N. Ratushniak, D.D. Klikno, D.D. Dmitriev, A.B. Gladyshev
Siberian Federal University,
660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Svobodnyi pr., 79
The paper was received April 6, 2026.
Abstract. This article examines the problem of improving the mutual navigation accuracy of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) deployed in groups through the use of an onboard local radio navigation system based on the rangefinding and direction‑finding method. A method is proposed for generating virtual antenna elements in a small‑element digital antenna array (DAA) by extrapolating the amplitude‑phase distribution measured on the real elements, which enables the synthesis of an effective aperture significantly larger than the physical one without increasing the weight and dimensions of the system. A theoretical analysis of the resolution and direction‑finding error is performed as a function of the signal‑to‑noise ratio (SNR), the number of elements, and the aperture. Using MATLAB simulation, it is shown that virtual aperture expansion reduces the angular coordinate estimation error from 9–14° to 1° or less. An evaluation of modern microwave components was carried out, including GaAs/GaN T/R modules, multichannel integrated circuits, and FPGAs with built‑in ADCs, which was used to estimate the weight and dimensions (less than 1.2 kg) and power consumption (approximately 30 W) of the onboard system. Conclusions are drawn regarding the technical feasibility of the proposed digital avionics system for UAVs with a takeoff weight of 5–10 kg.
Key words: unmanned aerial vehicles, swarming navigation, digital antenna array, virtual antenna elements, super-resolution, direction finding, signal-to-noise ratio, small-element antenna array
Financing: The study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation No. 25-19-20070, https://rscf.ru/project/25-19-20070/, a grant from the Krasnoyarsk Regional Science Foundation.
Corresponding author: Vasily Nikolaevich Ratushnyak, oborona-81@yandex.ru
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For citation:
Ratushnyak V.N., Klikno D.D., Dmitriev D.D., Gladyshev A.B. Improving the accuracy of direction finding in low-element digital antenna arrays through the use of virtual antenna elements // Journal of Radio Electronics. – 2026. – ¹ 4. https://doi.org/10.30898/1684-1719.2026.4.11