Echodyne, Inc. has announced what it calls the first ever sense-and-avoid radar tested on a small UAV.
“Echodyne’s radar was mounted on a small commercial drone which flew multiple missions below 400 [feet] over a period of several days,” according to a company announcement.
Sense-and-avoid technology aims to allow drones to autonomously detect and avoid collisions with other flying machines. Fitting this technology on small unmanned aircraft is a challenge.
“During the testing missions, the radar successfully scanned a broad field of view in both azimuth and elevation (up to 120 degrees x 80 degrees) detecting and tracking multiple types of aircraft including a small UAV, a Beechcraft Bonanza, and an ultralight aircraft flying through its airspace,” the Echodyne announcement said. “The radar provided a 4D data cube of radar returns accurately depicting ground vegetation, barbed wire fences and other stationary obstacles, as well as the flight paths of the tracked aircraft. The tests used Echodyne’s developer kit radar which is a precursor to its MESA-DAA radar, which will detect and track Cessna sized objects up to 3 kilometers away and small drones up to 750 meters away. MESA-DAA will be available to commercial customers in early 2017.”
First sense-and-avoid radar tested on small drone
