Circular Micro-SAR for mini-UAV

This paper presents a new multifunction radar that was specially designed for mini-UAV platforms. The multi-channel radar is omnidirectional, allowing great flexibility in radar- and flight operations. A demonstrator has been built, weighing 800 grams, and consuming 25 W. Flexible SAR, GMTI and novel sensing modes can be demonstrated with this...

Large scale track analysis for wide area motion imagery surveillance

Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) enables image based surveillance of areas that can cover multiple square kilometers. Interpreting and analyzing information from such sources, becomes increasingly time consuming as more data is added from newly developed methods for information extraction. Captured from a moving Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the...

Spurious RF signals emitted by mini-UAVs

This paper presents experimental work on the detection of spurious RF emissions of mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (mini-UAV). Many recent events have shown that mini-UAVs can be considered as a potential threat for civil security. For this reason the detection of mini-UAVs has become of interest to the sensor community. The detection,...

Classification of small UAVs and birds by micro-Doppler signatures

The popularity of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is increasing. Therefore, the importance of security systems able to detect and classify them is increasing as well. In this paper, we propose a new approach for UAVs classification using continuous wave radar or high pulse repetition frequency (PRF) pulse radars. We consider all steps of...

Online stochastic UAV mission planning with time windows and time-sensitive targets

In this paper we simultaneously consider three extensions to the standard Orienteering Problem (OP) to model characteristics that are of practical relevance in planning reconnaissance missions of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). First, travel and recording times are uncertain. Secondly, the information about each target can only be obtained...

Miniature UAVs: An overview

With this book TNO provides an overview of topics related to Miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (MUAVs). Both novices and experts may find this publication valuable. The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO conducts research on UAVs and MUAVs, see for example [1], on the basis of which this book was written.

Multichannel imaging with the AMBER FMCW SAR

An X-band Digital Array Synthetic Aperture Radar for a Short Range Tactical UAV is presented. The Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave radar principle in combination with digital beam forming over 24 receive channels is used to achieve low power and advanced imaging SAR capabilities on small platform. Novel SAR imaging modes are discussed, and...

Multichannel FMCW SAR

A light weight SAR, suitable for use on short range tactical UAV, has been designed and built. The system consists of a fully digital receive array, and a very compact active transmit antenna. The approximate weight of the complete system is 6 kg, with power consumption below 75 W, depending on the required data acquisition volume. This X-band...

Effects of reliance support on team performance by advising and adaptive autonomy

Problems with estimating trust in information sources are common in time constraining and ambiguous situations and often lead to a decrease of team performance. Humans lack the resources to track the integrity of information and thus tend to over- or under-rely on advice from support systems. Two types of adaptive team support have been...

Online adaptation of path formation in UAV search-and-identify missions

In this paper, we propose a technique for optimisation and online adaptation of search paths of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in search-and-identify missions. In these missions, a UAV has the objective to search for targets and to identify those. We extend earlier work that was restricted to offline generation of search paths by enabling the...

Optimizing the presentation of UAV images in an attack helicopter cockpit

Future Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) will collaborate more directly with military manned aircraft. TNO Defence, Security and Safety investigated how to present UAV sensor images in a fighter aircraft cockpit in order to maximize target identification and flying performance. Ten military pilots performed several Close Air Support missions in a...

The development of a SAR dedicated navigation system: from scratch to the first test flight: 2004BU1-RE

In this paper, the authors propose to describe the development process of a navigation system, concerning Syntectic Aperture Radar (SAR) applications, starting from the motivation for the sensor selection and finalizing with the first flight-test results. Sensors selection was one of the first steps in the design. Motivations for the...

Steering a simulated unmanned aerial vehicle using a head-slaved camera and HMD: effects of HMD quality, visible vehicle references and extended stereo cueing

In the simulator experiment reported here we examined several parameters influencing the performance of the operator of a (simulated) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This operator was fitted with an HMD which showed images from the (virtual) camera onboard of the UAV. The camera was slaved to the operator's head so that the camera movements...