Holographic Radar and the safe integration of drones

Holographic Radar and the safe integration of dronesTim Quilter

tim.quilter@aveillant.com

3 March 2017 2

The rise of the

drone

Holographic

Radar

The problem of

drone detection

Implementation

of a solution

P001-P-006 v1.1

3 March 2017 3

The rise of the

drone

Holographic

Radar

The problem of

drone detection

Implementation

of a solution

P001-P-006 v1.1

Rapid growth in use of drones

4

Rapid growth in UAS market is driving need for surveillance

High growth in UAS market

o Advances in UAS technologies

o Falling cost of UAS

USA market example

o Additional drivers:

• Beyond line of sight

• Package delivery (Amazon, DHL, DPD)

Source: FAA Aerospace Forecast 2016-2036

Issued Mar-2016

UAS Market Sales Forecast Summary

Million sUAS Units (<25kg)

Commercial UASHigher end ASP $40,000Lower end ASP $2,500

USA – sUAS Fleet Forecast

Top Five sUAS Markets - USA

75% CAGR

5 Years

2016-2021

30% CAGR

4 Years

2016-2020

UAS applications

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.15

Rapidly expanding

Amateur

o Toy

o Photographer

o Racer

Commercial

o Agriculture

o Surveillance

o Mapping

o Package delivery

o Medical supply

o Air taxi

Initial regulations focussed on controlling rogue drones

o Single rule for all operators

o Weight based limits

o Maximum distances from pilot and people

New regulation will be risk based

o Open

• Low risk

o Specific

• Operation centric

o Certified

• As for manned aviation

The future will be about enabling operations

Risks

Risk

Airborne

collision

Ground

collision

PrivacySmuggling

Terrorism

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.16

Regulation is evolving to match the risk

Risk - Airborne collision

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.17

500ft

60,000ft

Sharing the airspace

Risk - Airborne collision

CS-23

Normal,

utility,

aerobatic &

commuter

CS-25 /

FAR-25

Large

aeroplane

CS-27

Large

rotorcraft

Windshield 0.9 kg 1.8 kg 1 kg

Airframe 1.8 kg 1 kg

Empennage 3.6 kg 1 kg

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.18

Aircraft bird strike testing limits

https://www.easa.europa.eu/system/files/dfu/TF%20Drone%20Collision_Report%20for%20Publication%20%28005%29.pdf

CS-P

Propeller

CS-E

Engines

1 bird 1.8 kg 1.8 – 3.6 kg

16 birds 85 g

Continental 737 800 Newark 21 Mar 2009

Eqypt Air 737-800 Heathrow 11 Mar 2016

Small aircraft have no bird strike testing

Risk - Ground collision

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.19

Injury and fatality risk

https://www.easa.europa.eu/system/files/dfu/TF%20Drone%20Collision_Report%20for%20Publication%20%28005%29.pdf

AIS PoF

250g 1/2 1%

500g 3/4 30%

600g 4/5 50%

1.4kg 5/6 90%

Marcel Hirscher Italy 2015

Sag Harbor Main Street 2015

Police UAS

Risk - Privacy

3 March 2017 10

Personal privacy

Paparazzi

Espionage

P001-P-006 v1.1

Aerix VIDIUS HD 16g camera drone

Risk - Smuggling

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Prisons

Borders

Airports

Wandsworth prison London 2016

Tijuana Mexican border 2015

UK drone related police reports

Terrorism / low tech adversary

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+

=Fatality radius 5m

Injury radius 15m

DJI Phantom 4 payload 460g

M67 Grenade 397g

Safe integration

3 March 2017 13

Enabling the positive use of drones

Safety features

o Dynamic geo-fencing

o Sense and avoid

o Injury risk reduction

Regulation changes

o Stricter rules initially

o More flexibility for trained professionals

o Electronic identity

o Ambition to integrate all classes of UAS into all classes of airspace

UAS Traffic Management (UTM)

o Emerging field

o Fast track – new companies

o Slow track – existing aviation community

P001-P-006 v1.1

3 March 2017 14

The rise of the

drone

Holographic

Radar

The problem of

drone detection

Implementation

of a solution

P001-P-006 v1.1

Radar in 60 seconds

3 March 2017 15 P001-P-006 v1.1

The Holographic principle

3 March 2017 16

Multibeam staring vs scanning

Holographic radar: illumination and beamforming:

Electronic scan:

Sequential scan:

P001-P-006 v1.1

Applications of Holographic Radar

3 March 2017 17

Windfarm mitigation to drone detection

P001-P-006 v1.1

A wide area persistent solution

3 March 2017 18

Digitise the sky – search the data

Single transmitter illuminates whole field of view

o Simple low cost transmitter

Multi-beam receivers continuously gather data

o Azimuth and elevation beams provide 3D coverage

o 100% time-on-target yields fine Doppler resolution

o Tracking and analysis benefit from continuous dwell

Parallel processing allows real time target detection

o Software defined architecture

o Increase performance through processing not through spectrum

o Processing capacity determines the integrable range of target dynamics

The key principle is:

o Its all about the target

P001-P-006 v1.1

Holographic Radar matches technology with physics

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.119

Transforming sequential, spatial scan into memory access

Persistent observation

Resolution cells downloaded into to memory

Integration gives high Doppler resolution

Digital arrays give flexible beam forming

Process capacity is the limiting factor, and grows with Moore’s Law

Transmitter

Receiver panels

HR persistently downloads airspace into memory

P001-P-006 v1.120

Space is searched in parallel

A 40-mile radius scanning 2D PSR yields ~72,000 resolution elements per second, with ~16 pulses on target: ~1M data points per second

A 40-mile range Holographic RadarTM yields 2.4Bn resolution elements per second. 60 seconds’ continuous data occupies ~1TB of memory in 5 dimensions

Computers (GPU, CPU) search memory with great efficiency

V

H

Range

Time

Pulse

frames

3 March 2017 21

The rise of the

drone

Holographic

Radar

The problem of

drone detection

Implementation

of a solution

P001-P-006 v1.1

C-UAS

UTM

Counter UAS action hierarchy

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.122

Prevent

o Regulation

o Geo-fencing

o Education

Detect

o presence warning

Locate

o location

o trajectory

Identify

o UAS/bird/aircraft

o UAS - Friend or Foe

o intent

Act

o Mitigate

o Neutralise

o Destroy

act

identify

locate

detect

prevent

Gam

eke

ep

er

The counter UAS system

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.123

Command and Control (C2)

o Situational awareness

o Target prioritisation

o EA control

Radar

o Long range coverage (2-20km)

o All weather performance

o Cue-other sensors

Electro-optics (EO)

o Medium/short range (1-3km)

o Requires cue

o Positive identification

Acoustic sensing (AS)

o Very short range (~100m)

o Sensitive to environmental noise

Electronic Surveillance (ES)

o Medium/short range (1-3km)

o Positive identification

o No detection of autonomous flight

Electronic Attack (EA)

o Disable

o Control

Kinetic Attack

o Disable

o Destroy

C2

Radar

EO

AS

ES

EA

KA

How to act? (1)

Lethal

o Severe risk of collateral damage

Non-lethal

o Nets

o Trained eagles

o Some risk of collateral damage

Restricted legality

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.124

Kinetic attack

How to act? (2)

Link jamming

o Needs to be higher power than the communications link

o Drone hovers and returns to pre-programed base

o Does not work with autonomous flight

GPS jamming

o Works with autonomous flight

o Unpredictable outcome

Will impact other links in the area

Restricted legality

3 March 2017 P001-P-006 v1.125

Electronic attack

How to act? (3)

3 March 2017 26

Mitigation

Police enforcement

o Deterrent

Targeted education

o Signage

Warning to those at risk

o Pilot awareness

P001-P-006 v1.1

Gatwick Airport 2015

UTM systems concept

3 March 2017 27

One possible architecture

P001-P-006 v1.1

The challenge of seeing drones with a radar

3 March 2017 28

Low

o Swamped by strong returns from ground objects

Slow

o Difficult to distinguish from static clutter

Small

o Requires high sensitivity

Agile

o Challenging tracking

Differentiate from other objects small

o People/animals on the ground

o Birds/insects in the air

Classification

Clutter rejection

Detection

P001-P-006 v1.1

Using Holographic Radar to see drones

3 March 2017 29

Stare not scan

Number of elements of the sensor come together to aid the surveillance of small, slow, low and agile micro-drones

P001-P-006 v1.1

3D Lower

Fine

DopplerSlower

Staring Smaller

High

UpdateAgile

Classification

Filters

Machine learning

Micro-motion

detection

Holographic Radar tests against micro-drone

3 March 2017 30

Separating very small targets from clutter

P001-P-006 v1.1

Closer examination of Hexacopter signature

3 March 2017 31

Conventional radar view

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Outbound

Closer examination of Hexacopter signature

3 March 2017 32

3-D elevation separation => Lower

P001-P-006 v1.1

Outbound

Closer examination of Hexacopter signature

3 March 2017 33

3-D + Longer Dwell => Lower + Slower

P001-P-006 v1.1

Outbound

Closer examination of Hexacopter signature

3 March 2017 34

3-D + Longer Dwell + Stare => Lower + Slower + Agile

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Outbound

Closer examination of Hexacopter signature

3 March 2017 35

Holographic Radar => Lower + Slower + Agile + Smaller

P001-P-006 v1.1

Outbound

Closer examination of Hexacopter signature

3 March 2017 36

Holographic Radar increased sensitivity => Discrimination

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Outbound

Level 1 - Filter based classification

3 March 2017 37

Understanding the object categories

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Level 2 - Classification using machine learning

3 March 2017 38

Training and testing on same target using different data from same trial

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Drone

Tracks With Discrimination

Tracks Without Discrimination

Discrimination Features• Height• Acceleration• Age of track• Doppler bin• Doppler bin rate• Jolt• Maximum height

Level 3 - Micro-motion based classification

3 March 2017 39

Fixed wing with propellers

P001-P-006 v1.1

Micro-motion based classification

3 March 2017 40

Bird signature

P001-P-006 v1.1

Micro-motion based classification

3 March 2017 41

Multi-rotor

P001-P-006 v1.1

3 March 2017 42

The rise of the

drone

Holographic

Radar

The problem of

drone detection

Implementation

of a solution

P001-P-006 v1.1

Gamekeeper Holographic RadarTM

3 March 2017 43

Dedicated UAV detection Radar

Gamekeeper 16U

o RCS detection: ~0.01m2

o Birds vs. drones differentiation

• Automatic, low false alarm rate

o Range: 0.3 – 5km

o Height: <3,000ft

o Position of drone: 3D

o Update rate: 4x/sec

o Simultaneous multi-drone tracking

o Multi-sensor integration

P001-P-006 v1.1

Gamekeeper 16U – Monaco deployment

3 March 2017 44

Drone detection

P001-P-006 v1.1

Conventional 2-D Radar View

Gamekeeper 16U – Monaco deployment

3 March 2017 45

Drone detection

P001-P-006 v1.1

Add 3-D

Gamekeeper 16U – Monaco deployment

3 March 2017 46

Drone detection

P001-P-006 v1.1

Extend Dwell

Gamekeeper 16U – Monaco deployment

3 March 2017 47

Drone detection

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Increase Update

Gamekeeper 16U – Monaco deployment

3 March 2017 48

Drone detection

P001-P-006 v1.1

Maximise Sensitivity

Gamekeeper 16U – Monaco deployment

3 March 2017 49

Drone detection

P001-P-006 v1.1

Holographic Radar View

Long range tracking

3 March 2017 50

Drone detection in littoral environment to 5km

P001-P-006 v1.1

Tracking in urban clutter

3 March 2017 51

Drone detection over urban environment

P001-P-006 v1.1

Full C-UAS solution

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UTM implementation

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Summary

3 March 2017 54

Unmanned and autonomous aviation will be a significant proportion of future airspace

New technology will allow them to be safely integrated into our skies

Holographic Radar offers an innovative way to non-cooperatively detect, track and classify

o Enabling safe operation

o Detecting rogue drones

P001-P-006 v1.1