Cambio de paradigma en la enseñanza y la investigación en la materia Diseño de Antenas y Circuitos de RF.

En los últimos años han habido cambios importantes en la forma de enseñar en las universidades; la pandemia de Covid 19 aceleró varios procesos en la dirección de brindar acceso remoto a la formación e incorporar con un rol central la enseñanza virtual. Afortunadamente la madurez tecnológica que teníamos como sociedad cuando esta epidemia comenzó nos permitió seguir adelante con nuestros objetivos de formación universitaria y nos condujo por la vía de la práctica a descubrir ventajas de la enseñanza virtual, que es lógico conservar una vez finalizada la epidemia. El avance de las herramientas de software, en particular de los simuladores y la mejora en el acceso a los mismos, son otra herramienta clave en este proceso de cambio de paradigmas de la enseñanza e investigación. En materias como la Radiofrecuencia (RF), el uso de estos simuladores y de herramientas de software para impartir clases virtuales ofrecen una gran oportunidad de brindar formación de calidad en el área, sin limitaciones geográficas e incluso temporales. En un curso virtual la distancia del alumno al centro educativo no tiene el impacto que siempre ha tenido en el caso de la educación presencial. Desde el punto de vista de la administración de tiempo del estudiante y del docente, la posibilidad de grabar las clases de una forma muy simplificada y con buena calidad, permite que los estudiantes puedan tomar clases en forma asíncrona (viendo el video de la clase) cuando no pueden concurrir a esta. La grabación de las clases también facilita la labor del docente, permitiéndole recurrir a estas grabaciones en caso de necesidad o conveniencia. Esta nueva realidad nos muestra una posibilidad de compartir formación de calidad de forma global y ampliar significativamente nuestras redes de colaboración académica. Este trabajo trata del análisis de esos cambios y las oportunidades que implican con aplicación a la materia RF. Una modalidad mixta de cursos Presencial/Virtual permite conservar las ventajas de ambas y no tiene porqué ser difícil de implementar.In recent years there have been significant changes in the way of teaching in universities; the Covid 19 pandemic accelerated several processes in providing remote access to training and incorporating virtual teaching with a central role. Fortunately, the technological maturity that we had as a society when this epidemic began allowed us to continue with our university education goals and led us through practice to discover the advantages of virtual teaching that it is logical to preserve once the epidemic ends. The advancement of software tools, in particular simulators, and the improvement in access to them are other critical tools in changing the paradigms of teaching and research. In subjects such as Radiofrequency (RF), using these simulators and software tools to teach virtual classes offers an excellent opportunity to provide quality training in the area without geographical or even time limitations. In a virtual course, the distance from the student to the educational center does not have the impact it has always had in the case of face-to-face education. From the point of view of student and teacher time management, the possibility of recording classes in a very simplified way and with good quality allows students to take courses asynchronously (watching the class video) when they can't attend this one. The recording of classes also facilitates the teacher's work, allowing them to resort to these recordings in case of need or convenience. This new reality shows us the possibility of sharing quality training globally and significantly expanding our academic collaboration networks. This work analyzes these changes and the opportunities they imply, particularly in the RF topics. A mixed modality of Face-to-Face/Virtual courses allows the preservation of both advantages and does not have to be challenging to implement.Los autores agradecen a los organismos financiadores de los numerosos proyectos de investigación que han permitido adquirir las herramientas con las que hoy contamos para trabajar en el área de RF, en particular al proyecto ERASMUS/NEON (Project No. 618942-EPP-1-2020-1-AT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) aún en curso, que nos posibilitó la adquisición de licencias a perpetuidad de la herramienta de simulación Computer Simulation Technology (CST)

GPR system onboard a UAV for non-invasive detection of buried objects

Copia del artículo enviado al congreso (ya está aceptado para su presentación en el mismo)In this contribution, a novel subsurface imaging system to detect buried targets is presented. It is mainly composed by a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) mounted onboard an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Thus, the system can be used to inspect areas without being in contact with the soil, which makes it useful for detecting dangerous objects, such as landmines. The system architecture and some of the first prototype measurements, which are post-processed using a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) algorithm, are presented in this contribution.This work has been supported by Government of Spain (under projects TEC2014-55290-JIN, TEC2015-73908-JIN and grant FPU15/06341), Government of Asturias (IDI/2017/000095) and Galician Government (under project GRC2015/018) and under agreement for funding AtlantTIC.IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposiu

Recent advances in high-resolution Ground Penetrating Radar on board an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) (13th. 2019. Krakow, Poland

Evaluation of Positioning Techniques for mm-Wave Portable Scanners

European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (12th, 2018, London

Synthetic aperture radar imaging system for landmine detection using a ground penetrating radar on board a unmanned aerial vehicle

This paper presents a novel system to obtain images from the underground based on ground penetrating radar (GPR). The proposed system is composed by a radar module mounted on board an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which allows the safe inspection of difficult-to-access areas without being in direct contact with the soil. Therefore, it can be used to detect dangerous buried objects, such as landmines. The radar measurements are coherently combined using a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) algorithm, which requires cm-level accuracy positioning system. In addition, a clutter removal technique is applied to mitigate the reflection at the air-soil interface (which is caused by impedance mismatching). Besides the aforementioned advantages, the system can detect both metallic and dielectric targets (due to the use of a radar instead of a metal detector) and it allows to obtain high-resolution underground images (due to the SAR processing). The algorithms and the UAV payload are validated with measurements in both controlled and real scenarios, showing the feasibility of the proposed system.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TEC2014-54005-PMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TEC2014-55290-JINMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TEC2015-73908-JINMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. TEC2015-65353-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. RYC-2016-20280Ministerio de Educación | Ref. FPU15/06341Gobierno del Principado de Asturias | Ref. PCTI 2013-2017Gobierno del Principado de Asturias | Ref. FC-15-GRUPIN14-114Gobierno del Principado de Asturias | Ref. IDI/2017/000095Xunta de Galicia | Ref. GRC2015/01

An Ultrathin 2-bit Near-Field Transmitarray Lens

A novel ultra-thin Near-Field 2-bit 24x24-element transmitarray lens working at X-Band is presented in this letter. The aim of this antenna is to focus in a point located in the Near-Field without using any complex feeding network. In order to obtain a planar lens with a very low profile, a 2-bit-design approach is used to diminish the number of layers used in the structure. The simulations have been done using a model based on the concept that the Near-Field of an array can be calculated as the sum of the Far-Field contributions of every single one of its elements. These are considered as plane apertures over which the tangential electric field is constant. In order to validate the results of this model, they are compared with both those obtained with a full-wave commercial software and those from measurements. Thus, a Near-Field-antenna is manufactured and measured showing the measurements good concordance with the results of the mode

Array Optimization for an On-The-Move 3D Imaging System Demonstrator

IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation & USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting ( 2018. Boston)In this work, array optimization for an imaging system demonstrator is presented. It is able to create 3D images of people as they walk through the scanner and it makes use of a very low number of transceivers. The array positions have been optimized to minimize grating lobes and maximize resolution for a given number of array elements

Unmanned aerial system for antenna measurement (UASAM)

European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2018) (12th. 2018. London)The main goal of this contribution is to provide an overview of an Unmanned Aerial System for Antenna Measurement (UASAM), which will be presented at the AMTA Scientific Workshop on “UAV-based Antenna and Field Measurements”. UASAM is a compact low-cost system that can be used for in-situ antenna measurement and diagnostics. It makes use of a Real Time Kinematik (RTK) and a laser altimeter to georefer the measurements with cm-level accuracy. Field radiated by the Antenna Under Test (AUT) is measured with a low-cost power detector at several acquisition surfaces (even non-canonical surfaces) around the AUT (in the near field region). Next, an iterative phase retrieval technique is applied, being able to recover the AUT aperture fields. Furthermore, from these fields, Near-Field to Far-Field (NF-FF) transformation can be used to retrieve the radiation pattern. Several application examples for different kinds of AUTs will be shown in the workshop. In addition, the impact of positioning and geo-referring accuracy will be discussed as well. This system is of great interest for those industrial applications where antenna diagnostics and radiation pattern assessment capabilities are required (e.g. analysis of antenna arrays, tilt testing of base station antennas, etc.) avoiding the need of stopping operational conditions