Deformation Perception of Conformal Load-Bearing Antenna Structure Wing Based on RBF-iQS4

Early warning unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) possess the capability for long-range flight and operations at medium-to-low altitudes, enabling large-scale deployment within distant naval fleets for extended patrol missions. Operating in harsh environments characterized by aerodynamic forces, vibrations, impacts, and high temperatures, the conformal load-bearing antenna structures on these UAVs may undergo minor or permanent deformations, causing positional deviations of antenna elements and resulting in degraded electrical performance. Therefore, precise sensing of antenna structural deformations is essential for real-time compensation of performance losses. This study introduces the Radial Basis Function (RBF) interpolation method, utilizing a limited number of strain sensors to accurately reconstruct strain values at unsensed locations. A high-precision inverse finite element deformation sensing method based on RBF-iQS4 theory is proposed for conformal load-bearing antennas on UAV wings. The method is validated using a Global Hawk UAV model, demonstrating its effectiveness in deformation sensing and structural monitoring.