Rogue drones spawning a raft of counter technology

This has inevitably led to a rise in the number of incidents of them entering restricted areas – as recently as last weekend the British Aviation Authority (BAA) reported a suspected collision between a drone and an A320 passenger jet. To combat the threat there have been several weird and wonderful counter measures that have been trialled – from lasers and net-based systems, to using birds of prey to take-out rogue UAVs.

A number of start-ups have entered the market with a variety of counter-drone solutions that can be employed at airports, government buildings and sporting arenas. One such company, SkySafe, has developed a solution which uses radio waves to override the drone’s remote and takes control of the aircraft. The manufacturer claims it can achieve this without taking out other systems in the area such as WiFi (video below).

In addition, tech firm Battelle has released a point-and-shoot radio jammer dubbed Drone Defender (pictured) which also allows users to steal control of a drone from its owner. The device can currently only be used by government agencies, but it utilises a non-kinetic solution to defend airspace up to 400m against UAVs without compromising safety or risking collateral damage.

A system already employed in the US is DroneShield, which uses acoustic technology to detect incoming drones and then send emails or text messages to a monitoring service if a drone approaches a specified perimeter. The system is in use in several prisons in the US to prevent contraband being smuggled in, and it has also been employed at the Boston marathon.

German-based Aaronia’s Drone Detection System is based on the company’s IsoLOG 3D Tracking Array Antenna, a rugged or remote controllable Spectran V5 real time spectrum analyser and a new software plugin for the RTSA Suite Software.

Each sector/antenna gets its own real time view and is based on RF and µW detection. All views are combined to give a 360° view of the surrounding area/landscape. This gives full control over any RF emissions happening in the area. The system can provide an optical or audio alert if critical values are exceeded, collect data and compare them to find out irregularities. The Drone Detection System saves measurement time and allows detailed information on the spreading patterns of drone emissions.

Taking a more aggressive approach, Maldrone is a system that will actually infect approaching drones with malware, shutting off the aircraft’s auto-pilot system, causing it to drop out of the sky.

One issue with drones is that some are simply too small for radar systems to spot and differentiate from other objects like birds. However, Florida-based DeTect has developed a system that can automate the process of fine-tuning radar to find drones flying among other clutter.

Last week it was announced that the Gamekeeper radar from Aveillant coupled with JCPX Development’s counter-UAV system, which also incorporates high resolution cameras and jammers, will be provided to Monaco to protect the principality from attacks. The Gamekeeper uses holographic radar technology, which saturates a volume of space to continually gather 3D positioning and motion data, instead of over cross-sections as with traditional radars. Aveillant claim that enables Gamekeeper to detect targets down to a 0.01m² cross-section up to five kilometres away.