Design and Verification of a wireless communication system based on UAV with airborne reconfigurable intelligent surface

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology has emerged as a promising solution for the next-generation wireless communication, owing to its remarkable capability to control electromagnetic properties. However, most existing studies rely on the data transmission between a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and a computer via a data cable to control the metasurface, limiting its mobility and flexibility. Consequently, the wireless system's communication coverage remains constrained. This study develops a wireless communication system with airborne RIS by using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), resolving the issue of wireless control of the programmable digital coding metasurface. We use the wireless transmission module of the FPGA to send the coding sequence, which can switch the working states of the PIN diodes, resulting in a change of the metasurface’s reflection amplitude. Meanwhile, a UAV carries the RIS and FPGA flying as an aerial relay, so that the RIS can be moved anywhere and reflect the signal to target users. A picture is sent and received successfully with a bit error rate of 2.74% and a packet loss rate of 12.83%, which verifies the feasibility of the system. The result demonstrates the favorable potential of applying the UAV-assisted RIS technology to communication.