Practical Investigation of a MIMO radar system capabilities for small drones detection

Fawei Yang,Teng Long,Julien Le Kernec,Shaoqiang Chang,Francesco Fioranelli,Feng Xu

doi:10.1049/rsn2.12082

Abstract

The latest progress of the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar system developed for small drones detection at Beijing Institute of Technology is presented herein. A low-cost S-band MIMO scanning radar system is designed for the detection of small drones. A practical design optimisation and implementation of a sparse array covering the whole airspace, and a target-based MIMO radar array calibration method to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the target are proposed. An experiment in the microwave chamber was conducted to verify the designed sparse-array beam-pattern, and measurement campaigns for small drones were performed to test the system performance where the radar achieved detection and tracking of a small DJI-Phantom 4 drone at a range of up to 5 km. Target features, including micro-Doppler and radar cross-section signatures were extracted to assist target classification. The experimental results indicate that the system has promising capability in small drones detection and tracking, despite the challenges of low dwell time on targets due to the scanning nature of the system.

Highlights

As civilian drone technology continues to mature, small drones are becoming increasingly available to the general public [1]
Features related to the target radar cross‐section (RCS), singular value decomposition, and centroid of the micro‐Doppler signatures are extracted and the classification performance is above 95% accuracy
Note that the element in practice is not identical due to manufacturing constraints and has a wide bell‐shaped beam with a main lobe of 110° in elevation, which is shown in Figure 7, the practical side lobes of the synthesised multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) beam‐pattern at large angles are lower than the results in Section 2.2 with identical elements

Summary

Introduction

As civilian drone technology continues to mature, small drones are becoming increasingly available to the general public [1]. Sales of consumer drones have increased significantly due to low prices and user‐friendliness [2], and the applications of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become more widespread. One of the biggest problems caused by small drones is disruptions to airport operations. Flights can be grounded when unidentified drones are flying within or close to airport airspace. Between 19 and 21 December 2018, hundreds of flights were cancelled at Gatwick Airport near London, England, following reports of drone sightings close to the runway. The reports caused major disruption, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers and 1000 flights in a very busy period of the year coinciding with the Christmas holidays [6]

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion