The recent spate of unidentified drone sightings within the US, including in some nearby sensitive locations comparable to Airports And military facilitieshas caused great public concern.
Part of this recent increase in activity could also be related to a September 2023 Federal Aviation Administration rule change that now allows drone operators to achieve this fly at night. But most sightings are probably planes or helicopters as a substitute of drones.
However, the US government's inability to definitively discover the aircraft in recent incidents has some people wondering: Why can't they??
I’m an engineer who studies defense systems. I see radio frequency sensors as one promising approach to detect, track and discover drones, not least because drone detectors based on this technology exist already available. But I also see challenges in using the detectors to comprehensively detect drones flying over American communities.
How drones are controlled
Operators communicate with drones remotely using radio frequency signals. Radio frequency signals are widely utilized in on a regular basis life, comparable to in garage door openers, automobile key fobs, and naturally radios. Because the radio spectrum is used for thus many alternative purposes, it’s rigorously regulated by the EU Federal Communications Commission.
Drone communication is simply permitted in narrow bands around certain frequencies, comparable to 5 gigahertz. Each make and model of drone uses unique communication protocols encoded within the radio frequency signals to interpret instructions from an operator and send data back to them. This allows a drone pilot to instruct the drone to perform a flight maneuver, and the drone can tell the pilot where it’s and how briskly it’s flying.
Identification of drones through radio signals
Radio frequency sensors can hearken to the known drone frequencies to detect communication protocols specific to every particular drone model. In a way, these radio frequency signals represent a novel fingerprint of every sort of drone.
In the perfect case scenario, authorities can use the radio frequency signals to find out the drone's location, range, speed and direction of flight. These radio frequency devices are called passive sensors because they simply listen for and receive signals without taking energetic motion. The typical range limit for detecting signals is roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from the source.
These sensors don’t represent advanced technology and are available. Why haven't the authorities used them more widely?
Challenges in using high frequency sensors
While monitoring radio frequency signals is a promising approach to detecting and identifying drones, there are several challenges involved.
First, it is simply possible for a sensor to acquire detailed details about drones whose communication protocols the sensor is aware of. In order to acquire sensors that may detect a wide selection of drones, coordination between all drone manufacturers and a central registry is required.
Due to the lack of understanding that makes it possible to decipher the radio frequency signals, only a rough idea of its location and direction might be derived from a drone. This situation might be improved through the use of multiple sensors and coordinating their information.
Second, the detection approach works best in “quiet” high-frequency environments where there aren’t any buildings, machines or people. It will not be easy to confidently assign the unique source of a radio frequency signal in urban and other crowded environments. Radio frequency signals reflect from all solid surfaces, making it difficult to make sure where the unique signal got here from. Again, using multiple sensors in a given location and thoroughly placing those sensors might help alleviate this problem.
Third, a big a part of the priority in regards to the inability to detect and discover drones is that they could be operated by criminals or terrorists. If drone operators with malicious intent know that a goal area for a drone operation is being monitored by radio frequency sensors, they will develop effective countermeasures. For example, they could use signaling frequencies which might be outside the parameters regulated by the FCC and communication protocols which have not been registered. An even simpler countermeasure is to pre-program a drone's flight path to completely avoid the usage of any radio frequency communication between the operator and the drone.
Ultimately, the widespread use of high-frequency sensors to trace drones could be logistically complicated and financially costly. There are likely hundreds of websites within the US alone that should be protected against enemy drone attacks. The cost of deploying a totally effective drone detection system could be significant.
There are other ways to detect drones including Radar systems And Networks of acoustic sensorswho concentrate to the unique sounds drones produce. But radar systems are relatively expensive and acoustic drone detection is a brand new technology.
The way forward
It was almost certain that the issue of unidentified drones would arise sooner or later. Drones are getting used increasingly continuously in previously very sparsely populated regions of the airspace.
Perhaps recent concerns about drone sightings are a wake-up call. The airspace will only turn out to be more polluted in the approaching years More and more consumers are buying dronesDrones are used for this more industrial purposesAnd Air taxis are used. Drone detection technologies can only offer a lot, and it could be needed for the FAA to tighten regulation of the country's airspace, for instance by requiring drone operators to submit detailed flight plans.
In the meantime, Don't be too quick to assume Those blinking lights you see within the night sky are drones.
image credit : theconversation.com