Drone Detection Technologies

Nowadays, with the rise of drones and thus, the rise of drone threats, drone detection systems have been flourishing on the market worldwide. In this article, we will review the different anti-drone solutions including pros and cons of each technology. At the end of your reading, you should be able to have an overview of the anti-drone market and what you should buy regarding your needs. We will focus on the “monitoring equipment” or the systems that help protect people and building from drone threats.

Accoustic Sensors (Microphones)

Simply put, an acoustic sensor is made of microphones (a lot) that detect the specific sound made by a drone.

Advantage
  • • Medium Cost
Disadvantages
  • • Doesn’t work well in a noisy environment, when it rains (the noise of the rain disturb the microphones)
  • • Very short range detection (maximum 300-500 meters)

Optical Sensors (Cameras)

An optical sensor is a passive drone detection system which allows to compute the position, trajectory and speed of the UAV.

Advantage
  • • Provide visual of the drone
Disadvantage
  • • Doesn’t work in the fog or in case of high clouds, rain or snow

Radar

A radar basically use radio energy to detect an object. The radar sends a signal to receive a reflection of the signal from the drone. When using a radar you are able to measure the direction and the distance of the drone.

Advantages
  • • Long range detection
  • • accurate localization
  • • independent of visual condition
Disadvantages
  • • Requires transmission license and frequency check to prevent interference
  • • can’t distinguish birds from drones

Radio Frequency (RF) Analyzers

A radio-frequency drone detection system is made of one or more antennas that analyze the radio frequency spectrum of the target.

Advantages
  • • No license required (passive drone detection system)
  • • Medium cost
  • • Can detect multiply drones
  • • long range detection
  • • No latency
Disadvantage
  • • Can be expensive

At iTech, we are providing a drone detection system using RF technology called iShield (mettre lien de la page). The cool thing is we also built a specific system using AI. Thanks to our amazing team of engineers, we developed a drone detection system that localize the drones and the pilots of drones up to 5km! Tested in a noisy environment (urban area in Taipei City with lots of radio frequencies and wireless communication systems), we can easily target the communication of the drones and get rid of the unnecessary RF. Our system can monitor days and nights and you don’t need any licence to use it. Thus, it’s a very valuable solution in airports since iShield doesn’t disturb other wireless communication systems. It can protect any buildings or events, like public events, stadiums, international exhibitions, factories, houses, etc.

Contact us to know more about our cutting-edge drone detection system!