In order for unmanned aerial vehicles to be gain approval for use in the national airspace, there must be systems to prevent them from crashing into other aircraft. The key challenge is developing a sense-and-avoid system that can reliably detect the presence of objects of various size. Researchers from the University of Denver in Colorado have developed a phased-array radar system that weighs 12 ounces and is small enough to fit in the palm of a person’s hand. Radar-based solutions, in comparison to other sense-and-avoid systems, are highly reliable and in various environmental conditions, but only work when all the aircraft in the airspace are equipped with transponders. The team built everything except the antenna including digital signal processor, circuit boards, and the software. In field tests they were able to detect and identify targets of the size roughly equivalent to UAV at about 300 feet, and they are working to increase the range. When development is complete, the researchers anticipate the system will be about 4 ounces. According to the researchers, instead of having the sensors driven, the system will make use of a dome that have overlapping fields of view. This allows the system to continuously scan the sky ahead without having a servo driving it back and forth.
Source: GCN
