Persistent, Robust, Effective Surveillance using Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (PRESS)

摘要

Defending an area of interest, whether land, sea or air, against a myriad of intruders, e.g., unmanned systems (air, sea and land), poses a serious set of challenges to an already stressed border protection system. Enemy sophistication and commercially available technologies allow the migration of intrusion systems to move to areas where weaknesses are detected. Our response must be equally adept at moving to the areas as intrusion events ebb and flow over regions. Additionally these border protection systems must be cost effective and adaptable to changing environments. In this case, we propose a fleet of low-cost, autonomous, small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) with the ability to be transported to current hotspots of activity, launched in swarms, persistent for hours to days, provide real-time feedback for man-on-the-loop operations, and be retrievable for reuse at a later time. We note that the targets of interest are able to operate in two distinct modes: RF active and RF passive. In the RF active mode the target is typically communicating with an operator in a rather continuous fashion. In the RF passive mode the target is flying via internal navigation to a specific location. Our approach is to equip the sUASs with inexpensive yet effective electronics to perform cooperative geolocation and tracking of both types of targets, i.e., RF active and passive, using Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), Frequency Difference of Arrival (FDOA) and Frequency-Rate Difference of Arrival (FRDOA) techniques. Providing the track information to the command center allowing them to decide actions to be taken.