Audio-Based Aircraft Detection System for Safe RPAS BVLOS Operations

Abstract

For the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) market to continue its current growth rate, cost-effective "Detect and Avoid" systems which enable safe beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations are critical. We propose an audio-based "Detect and Avoid" system, composed of microphones and an embedded computer, which performs real-time inferences using a sound event detection (SED) deep learning model. Two state-of-the-art SED models, YAMNet and VGGish, are fine-tuned using our aircraft sounds dataset and their performances are compared for a wide range of configurations. YAMNet, whose MobileNet architecture is designed for embedded applications, outperformed VGGish both in terms of aircraft detection and computational performance. YAMNet's optimal configuration, with > 70% true positive rate and precision, results from combining data augmentation and undersampling with the highest available inference frequency (i.e. 10 Hz). While our proposed "Detect and Avoid" system already allows the detection of small aircraft from sound in real time, a larger dataset, sensor fusion, or the use of cloud-based services for remote computations could further improve its performance.

Benchmark on Real-Time Long-Range Aircraft Detection for Safe RPAS Operations

“…The problem is divided into two tasks: detecting objects close to the aerial vehicle, and managing the maneuver to avoid a collision. DAA systems' architecture can vary, and multiple types of sensors, including acoustic, visual or radars, can be used [5]. When performing BVLOS flights, the main roadblock is the absence of cost-effective systems approved by the aeronautical authorities.…”