Radar-based detection and identification for miniature air vehicles

It is claimed that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) used for civilian/public domain applications will be dominant in the near future. Compared to UAVs used by the military, civilian UAVs are often operated by pilots without formal training, and hence they require increased levels of autonomy and intelligence, especially with regard to reducing threats to public safety. UAV integration into the National Air Space will require that the UAVs support multiple, complementary sense-and-avoid mechanisms, including detection and identification of other UAV-sized targets. Currently, the majority of available sensors are based on infrared detectors, focal plane arrays, optical and ultrasonic rangefinders. These sensors are generally not able to detect or identify other UAV-sized targets and, when detection is possible, considerable computational power may be required for successful identification. By contrast, this paper describes the design of a light weight, X-Band (10.5GHz) radar system for use on a small-scale (<; 25 kg) rotorcraft. The prototype radar implementation is small enough to be carried by any miniature UAV, and it is capable of differentiating other miniature rotorcraft by their doppler signature. In addition to the overall hardware and software design of the prototype system, a performance analysis of various signature matching algorithms is presented demonstrating the capabilities of the system in a laboratory setting.

I. INTRODUCTION

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming attractive solutions for non-military applications such as: traffic monitoring, fire protection, border patrol, among many others [1]. UAVs used by the military are generally powerful enough to carry advanced avionics equipment similar to that used in manned vehicles, are typically piloted by a team of highly trained individuals, and require a significant capital investment to operate. Civilian applications, however, are trending towards the use of smaller systems (i.e., Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) < 20kg) operated by individuals or small teams with little formal training.