Researchers at the University of Denver’s Unmanned Systems Research Institute may have the answer. The group has developed a phased-array radar system that weighs only 12 ounces and is small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand.
The technology was licensed in April to Integrated Robotics Imaging Systems in Kenai, Alaska, which will be testing it on its Infotron IT180, a French-made, dual-rotor unmanned platform.
Published on Jan 10, 2014
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are
under the group of Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS), Unmanned Ground
Vehicles (UGVs), and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs). Dr. Valavanis
and his research team at the Unmanned Systems Research Institute
(DU²SRI) researches these autonomous vehicles to create,
coordinate, and promote research in building the next generation of
unmanned systems in general and UAS in particular that will be used for a
wide spectrum of civil/public domain applications. This group
- Functions as the focal point within the State of Colorado for basic and applied research and development activities in unmanned systems. It serves as a demo site for unmanned vehicles;
- Provides the foundations for technology transfer to the private sector;
- Contributes to paving the way towards gradual integration of UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS), also assisting third parties to obtain Certificates of Authorization (COA) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA);
- Participates in State-wide UAS research and development initiatives offering its know-how and expertise;
- Assists in economic development and creation of new jobs by graduating the next generation of highly skilled scientists and engineers, ready to compete in a very demanding global market;
- Bridges the gap between military and civilian application domains.
According to Dr. Matthew J Rutherford, assistant professor of computer science and deputy director of the Unmanned Systems Research Institute, the team wanted to develop a radar-based solution because radar offers several advantages over the two other technologies – optical camera-based systems and transponder systems – that have been under development for sense-and-avoid systems.
The team built everything from scratch except the antenna – digital signal processor, circuit boards and the software. “In our field tests we were able to detect and identify targets of the size roughly equivalent to UAV at about 100 meters or 300 feet,” Dr. Matt Rutherford noted, and added that the team is continuing to work on increasing the range of the unit.
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| Moses 2a Radar - CWFSK Mono-pulse 5 Watt |
Moses Dissertation - RADAR Based Collision Avoidance for Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have become increasingly
prevalent and will represent an increasing percentage of all aviation. These
unmanned aircraft are available in a wide range of sizes and capabilities and
can be used for a multitude of civilian and military applications. However, as
the number of UAS increases so does the risk of mid-air collisions involving
unmanned aircraft. This dissertation aims to present one possible solution for
addressing the mid-air collision problem in addition to increasing the levels
of autonomy of UAS beyond waypoint navigation to include preemptive
sensor-based collision avoidance. The presented research goes beyond the current
state of the art by demonstrating the feasibility and providing an example of a
scalable, self-contained, RADAR-based, collision avoidance system. The
technology described herein can be made suitable for use on a miniature
(Maximum Takeoff Weight & lt; 10kg) UAS platform. This is of paramount importance
as the miniature UAS eld has the lowest barriers to entry (acquisition and
operating costs) and consequently represents the most rapidly increasing class
of UAS
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