Characterizing the UAV-to-Machine UWB Radio Channel in Smart Factories

TL;DR

This paper presents UWB radio channel measurements in a real factory environment to support UAV-assisted industrial applications, analyzing propagation parameters across various locations and heights for better wireless deployment.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive UWB air-to-ground channel characterization in a real factory setting, aiding future UAV-based industrial wireless solutions.

Findings

Propagation parameters vary with distance, height, and conditions.

UWB channels show distinct characteristics compared to ground-to-ground links.

Data supports link budget, interference, and dispersion analysis for factory environments.

Abstract

In this work, the results of Ultra-Wideband air-to-ground measurements carried out in a real-world factory environment are presented and discussed. With intelligent in-dustrial deployments in mind, we envision a scenario where the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle can be used as a supplementary tool for factory operation, optimization and control. Measurements address narrow band and wide band characterization of the wireless radio channel, and can be used for link budget calculation, interference studies and time dispersion assessment in real factories, without the usual limitation for both radio terminals to be close to ground. The measurements are performed at different locations and different heights over the 3.1-5.3 GHz band. Some fundamental propagation parameters values are determined vs. distance, height and propagation conditions. The measurements are complemented with, and compared to, conventional ground-to-ground measurements with the same setup. The conducted measurement campaign gives an insight for realizing wireless applications in smart connected factories, including UAV-assisted applications.