Phased Arrays Without a Platform: From Flying UAV Swarms to an Earth-Scale IoT Radio Telescope

Abstract:  

Phased arrays have traditionally relied on rigid platforms with fixed, precisely known element positions; this talk explores what becomes possible when array elements are free to move and spread across platforms never designed to be antennas. First, I will present UAV swarm-based distributed phased arrays, covering grating-lobe mitigation under collision-avoidance constraints, swarm geometries for near-isotropic scan coverage, low-sidelobe sparse arrays via mechanical rotation, and a flying reconfigurable Yagi-Uda antenna formed by magnetically connected UAVs. Second, I will scale this idea globally with an NSF CAREER-supported distributed radio telescope that turns existing IoT networks into a low-cost, spectrum-sharing receiving array, discussing calibration methods, system performance, and sidelobe statistics of extremely large random spherical arrays. The talk will close with shared challenges across both thrusts, including sidelobe control with irregular geometries and calibration without centralized control, along with open problems and collaboration opportunities in sensing, communications, and radio astronomy.

Bio:

Dr. Junming Diao received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 2009 and 2012, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University (BYU), Provo, UT, USA, in 2017. From 2017 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral scholar in electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), CA, USA. From 2019 to 2020, he was a system engineer at MaxLinear, Inc., Carlsbad, CA, working on system-on-chip (SoC) design for 100/400 Gbps optical modules. From 2020 to 2021, he was an antenna design engineer at Apple, Inc., Cupertino, CA, working on Apple Watch projects. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), with total external funding of nearly $5 million, including more than $1.3 million as his share. He received the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award and the Mississippi State University Academy of Distinguished Teachers award. He is a senior member of IEEE.