Antenna Tracking

Antenna Trackers are systems that track your vehicle’s location, and use this information to correctly align a directional antenna. This approach significantly improves the range over which signals can be both sent and received from the ground station.

ArduPilot supports two methods for Antenna Tracking. One method uses GPS information from the vehicle and ground station to aim the antenna. The other uses an autopilot board and gets its GPS directly via telemetry from the vehicle so this AntennaTracker is independent of any particular GCS.

ArduPilot Autopilot based AntennaTracker

• The AntennaTracker firmware turns an ArduPilot-supported board (Choosing an Autopilot) nto the controller for an antenna tracker.

• The board calculates the required antenna direction and can drive the antenna’s servos directly.

• Mission Planner (or any other GCS) may be used, but is not required.

TurnKey Systems

Device	MAVLink?	Complete System?	URL
Alpha Unmanned Systems GTRACK	Yes	Yes	Alpha Unmanned Systems Vessel Control Station (VCS)
ARKBIRD AAT	No	Yes	https://www.arkbirdfpv.com/
Mainlink MF18	Yes	No	https://www.szmainlink.com/mf18-antenna/
Motionew AAT v1 + Datalink Box	Yes	?	https://www.motionew.com/
Motionew CommuniNet MND-1410 AAT System	Yes	?	https://www.motionew.com/
Motionew Crossbow AAT	Yes	No	https://www.motionew.com/shop/data-link-video-link/antenna/antenna-tracker/
Motionew Mini Crossbow AAT	Yes	No	https://www.motionew.com/
MyFlyDream Crossbow AAT	Yes	No	https://www.myflydream.com/
MyFlyDream miniCrossbow	Yes	No	https://www.myflydream.com/
SoarApex ATS20	Yes	No	https://soarapex.com/

Complete System: includes necessary vehicle equipment

Mission Planner-based GPS Tracking

• Uses the Mission Planner GCS to determine the direction to aim the antenna.

• The PC running Mission Planner must have GPS.

• You will need a special servo driver board to control the servos.