Drone Detection Dilemma
Rochester Institute of Technology, Spring 2023
Problem Statement
Security engineering officers in U.S. Embassy Baghdad need a better way to detect and locate non-US autonomous drones within 1/2 kilometer of the US Embassy Baghdad in order to prevent adversaries from surveilling and harming the people inside the embassy.
Problem Scoping and Discovery
The team conducted 51 discovery interviews with industry experts, radar and RF sensor operators, and an array of DOS engineers and contactors. They found that:
Data collection efforts should expand to include visual, audio, and RF data to detect different types of drones
Precision RF Detection Systems appear to be most effective for commercial drones, but non-commercial drones can circumvent RF detection by encrypting traffic between the drone and computer
A detection mechanism for group 3 drones can also likely be used to detect group 1 and group 2 drones
Solution Proposed
The student team developed a plan for a visual and infrared tracking system with high refresh rates, and a database of drone audio signatures with microphones mounted around the perimeter of embassies. This would allow for drone detection within 1/2 kilometer of Embassy walls, creating more efficient risk assessment capabilities.
Results
The team handed off their recommendation to their problem sponsor, who said there is a possibility of the recommendation implemented, and that his team will do research into the equipment the team recommended.