Synthesis of robust linear antenna arrays exploiting an interval-based Particle Swarm Optimizer

The mask-constrained power pattern synthesis of robust linear antenna arrays is addressed in this work by means of a hybrid strategy based on Interval Analysis (IA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Assuming known the maximum tolerance errors on the amplitude excitations of the array elements expressed in terms of the nominal weights, the values of nominal amplitude coefficients are optimized by means of the PSO such that the interval power pattern computed by means of IA lies within user-defined upper and lower power bounds. New numerical results with respect to those already published in the scientific literature are reported and discussed to further show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in designing robust beam-forming weights for linear antenna arrays.