Drone Detection Technologies

2020/03/16

Nowadays, with the rise of drones and thus, the rise of drone threats, drone detection systems have been flourishing on the market worldwide. In this article, we will review the different anti-drone solutions including pros and cons of each technology. At the end of your reading, you should be able to have an overview of the anti-drone market and what you should buy regarding your needs. We will focus on the “monitoring equipment” or the systems that help protect people and building from drone threats.

Accoustic Sensors (Microphones)

Simply put, an acoustic sensor is made of microphones (a lot) that detect the specific sound made by a drone.

Advantages

Medium Cost

Disadvantages

Doesn’t work well in a noisy environment, when it rains (the noise of the rain disturb the microphones)
Very short range detection (maximum 300-500 meters)

Optical Sensors (Cameras)

An optical sensor is a passive drone detection system which allows to compute the position, trajectory and speed of the UAV.

Advantages

Provide visual of the drone

Disadvantages

Doesn’t work in the fog or in case of high clouds, rain or snow.

Radar

A radar basically use radio energy to detect an object. The radar sends a signal to receive a reflection of the signal from the drone. When using a radar you are able to measure the direction and the distance of the drone.

Advantages

Long range detection
Accurate localization
Independent of visual condition

Disadvantages

Requires transmission license and frequency check to prevent interference
Can’t distinguish birds from drones

Radio Frequency (RF) Analyzers

A radio-frequency drone detection system is made of one or more antennas that analyze the radio frequency spectrum of the target.

Advantages

No license required (passive drone detection system)
Medium cost
Can detect multiply drones
Long range detection
No latency

Disadvantages

Can be expensive

At iWave, we are providing a drone detection system using RF technology called iShield (mettre lien de la page). The cool thing is we also built a specific system using AI. Thanks to our amazing team of engineers, we developed a drone detection system that localize the drones and the pilots of drones up to 5km! Tested in a noisy environment (urban area in Taipei City with lots of radio frequencies and wireless communication systems), we can easily target the communication of the drones and get rid of the unnecessary RF.

Our system can monitor days and nights and you don’t need any licence to use it. Thus, it’s a very valuable solution in airports since iShield doesn’t disturb other wireless communication systems. It can protect any buildings or events, like public events, stadiums, international exhibitions, factories, houses, etc.