Small drones are being utilized by researchers for applications such as object tracking, imaging and remote sensing as they have become more available, inexpensive and mobile with the advancements in sensor and UAV technologies. They can be equipped with sensors such as cameras and radars. Radars can be used onboard for navigation aid by detecting range and velocity, as well as for radar imaging applications. Although they are used in the latter commonly, radars can be used in navigation aid as well since they are barely affected by weather conditions or smoke. FMCW radars are suitable for drones since they can be lightweight and can detect range and velocity. Therefore, an FMCW radar-equipped drone system is designed and implemented for UAV positioning applications. A postprocessing algorithm is developed for detecting the altitude above ground level as well as the amount of reflection coming from the material on the ground surface, and a range compensation method is proposed to improve the performance of the algorithm. The results of a field experiment showed that the radar system and the postprocessing algorithm can be used for drone-based airborne positioning applications. Altitude values obtained with the radar postprocessing are in agreement with the altitude of the drone. Reflections coming from the metal objects are distinguished from those coming from the ground. With the range compensation method, minimum detectable altitude value is improved and the magnitude of ground reflections obtained from different altitudes became similar. The proposed system and algorithm can be utilized in navigation and in landing aid applications.


    Access

    Download


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Detection of the Altitude and On-the-Ground Objects Using 77-GHz FMCW Radar Onboard Small Drones


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2023




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    Unknown




    Low C-SWaP FMCW radar Low C-SWaP FMCW radar system for illegal flight detection of low altitude drones

    CHOI SANG HYOUK / AHN JAE YOUNG / UHM MAN SEOK et al. | European Patent Office | 2019

    Free access

    Algorithm for Precise Altitude Estimation in FMCW Radar

    Mehrotra, Priyanka / Jha, Ayush / Khokhar, Sunita et al. | IEEE | 2023


    Onboard Detection and Localization of Drones Using Depth Maps

    Carrio, Adrián / Tordesillas, Jesús / Vemprala, Sai et al. | BASE | 2020

    Free access

    FMCW Radar Post Processing Method for Small Displacement Detection

    Pramudita, A. A / Suratman, Fiky. Y / Arseno, Dharu et al. | IEEE | 2018


    Ground-Penetrating Radar-Mounted Drones in Agriculture

    Linna, Petri / Halla, Antti / Narra, Nathaniel | TIBKAT | 2022