GNSS Based Passive Radar for UAV Monitoring

Abstract

Monitoring of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) targets has been a subject of great importance in both defence and security sectors. In this paper a novel system is introduced based on a passive bistatic radar using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) as illuminators of opportunity. Particularly, a link budget analysis is held to determine the capabilities and limitations of such a system. Additionally, a signal reconstruction algorithm is provided allowing estimation of the transmitted signal from each satellite. Finally, the proposed system is tested in outdoor acquisitions of small UAV targets where the Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT) is used as tool to enhance target detectability.

GNSS‐based passive UAV monitoring: a feasibility study

“…Experimental acquisitions validated the feasibility of the system, while the application of short time fractional Fourier transforms was also proposed to enhance the target parameter estimation capabilities. This study extends the work in [19] by considering both forward and back scattering (BS) RCS as well as exploiting multi‐satellite acquisitions in a multiple‐input single‐output (MISO) configuration. The contribution of this work can be summarised as follows: extension of the proposed system for multi‐satellite acquisition; evaluation of the maximum detectable range accounting BS and FS configurations, and time and multi‐satellite integration; evaluation of the localisation capabilities in a MISO parameter estimation approach; investigation of micro‐Doppler signatures in GNSS PBR configurations.…”

“…As shown in [22], spheres with a radius close to 8 cm can well approximate the BS‐RCS of a Parrot drone target at the 2.4 GHz WiFi band. An overview of the FS‐RCS phenomenology is provided in [23], while its applicability for miniature UAV detection was investigated in [19]. The maximum FS‐RCS in the optical region can be calculated from [24] where S is the physical area of the target.…”

“…In previous work, the concept of GNSS‐based PBR for UAV monitoring was investigated for FS configuration [19]. Specifically, a link budget analysis was conducted to determine the maximum detectable range of different size targets exploiting GPS and Galileo constellations.…”

SISAR imaging for space debris based on nanosatellites

“…FSR is a special bistatic radar configuration occurring when the bistatic angle is close to [18]. The concept of FSR is illustrated in Fig.…”

A Modified Radon Fourier Transform for GNSS-Based Bistatic Radar Target Detection

“…The fundamental limitation of the GNSS-based PBR is the low power density of the GNSS signal [10]. Generally, a large receiving antenna and a fairly long coherent integration time are required for the GNSS-based PBR to obtain a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for effective detection at a promising range.…”