Project number
18061
Organization
Raytheon Missile Systems
Academic year
2018-2019
The increase in the availability and popularity of hobby unmanned aircraft has become a dangerous security issue for small private airports and concert arenas. The designed drone-detection system detects unmanned aircraft within 35 seconds and notifies system operators via PC so they can act to avoid the unmanned aircraft. The system displays the location of unmanned aircraft by giving the height and azimuth bearing of the unmanned aircraft relative to the system. The system covers a full 30-degree field of regard at up to 400 meters.The system uses a lidar rangefinder as the beam source and distance-measurement device for unmanned aircraft detection. Two motors scan the detecting beam across a 30-degree field of regard. The system sits atop an electrical box housing the microcontroller and support circuit used to power and steer the motors, as well as collect recordings from the lidar. The position and readings are output from the microcontroller to the user’s PC for verification and display on the graphical user interface. The software package is written in C++ and inputted into a Matlab script which generates a user-friendly display and interface for field use.