Waves transmit information, information is knowledge, knowledge is power, power is an illusion, and an illusion–well, that’s magic. But science ain’t magic unless you’re referring to David Blaine’s bit where he pulls a baking soda volcano out of a stranger’s hat.
Dr. Giovanetti’s presentation provided a baseline knowledge of simple waves: light waves and sound waves. These waves have properties of frequency–meaning the length of one repeated segment of a wave–and amplitude–being that wave’s height. Light and sound as we perceive it are combinations of many light and sound waves and are interpreted in terms of their frequency and time. Giovanetti then went on to contextualize the basic ideas with something that is imperative to the work we are doing: radio waves. We learned about how radio waves are used to transmit information and took a look at the concept of the antenna–a piece of equipment that Dr. Alberts highlighted in his presentation.
Dipole antenna on RC and its basic pattern. This is one of the seemingly complex topics that Alberts boiled down for us.
After Dr. Giovanetti had explained the core concepts, Alberts was able to take a more focused approach and discuss waves and their relation to drones. He lectured on the various types of antennas and how they transmit radiation and frequency patterns that can be discerned as information.
Radio waves play an important part in anything to with UAS because this is how telemetry data and control are communicated. A drone operates in the same way as the RC car you used to have: the controller transmits radio waves that are received and interpreted by the drone’s on-board computer. The Augmented Comms Project must take particular note of these lectures because everything we are trying to do with UAV systems has to do with transmitting and receiving waves. We’ve wrestled with what type of wave to use and we’ve settled on using wifi. While wifi has a shorter range than other methods we’ve looked at (due to its higher frequency), it is more familiar and we are capable of transmitting more useful data such as video and real-time audio.
Thanks to Dr. Giovanetti and Dr. Alberts for their lectures on waves, their properties, and their direct association with the project. The team is excited to have reinforced their understanding of waves and how they can be used to transmit data.
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