Laser-Controlled Drones Can Evade Signal-Jamming Countermeasures

The best technique to knock a drone that poses a security or safety risk out of the sky is to hinder the wi-fi communications between the plane and people at its controls. But sign jammers that concentrate on radio frequency communications are ineffective towards a new type of drone control system that uses laser beams instead.

As drones have turn out to be more proficient at remotely delivering incendiary units and even espionage, we’ve seen numerous other ways developed to forestall them from finishing their missions, together with net-firing cannons, different drones that intercept and assault mid-flight by capturing off their very own propellers, and even highly effective lasers that may actually fry an airborne drone from miles away. But lots of these methods additionally require complicated detection units that may determine and precisely observe the actions of a drone. A a lot simpler resolution is to easily use sign jammers to disrupt communications between a drone and both its pilot or the satellite tv for pcs that allow it steer autonomously.

But drone improvement is an ongoing cat and mouse recreation, and whereas anti-drone countermeasures are being developed, so are methods to bypass these countermeasures. When it involves sign jammers, a British firm known as QinetiQ has give you a technique to remotely function drones with out the usage of radio alerts, which may be disrupted and intercepted.

The new system leverages Free-Space Optical Communications (FSO, or FSOC), which trades radio alerts for beams of sunshine which can be invisible and inconceivable to intrude with or intercept with out bodily putting a blockade or detector between the transmitter and the plane. QinetiQ has not too long ago successfully tested a drone that makes use of lasers for a high-bandwidth line of communication between a drone and a floor station, which, with sufficient energy, might provide a protracted vary of distant operation.

There are some drawbacks to the method. The communications can’t be remotely jammed, however they do have line of sight limitations, which signifies that if there’s an impediment like a mountain between a pilot and the drone’s vacation spot, the system wouldn’t work. The use of lasers additionally gained’t assist an autonomous drone depending on GPS alerts for navigation. It would nonetheless be capable of securely beam again stay movies or imagery utilizing the high-bandwidth laser system, however would stay prone to sign jamming countermeasures. And whereas sign jamming is not a priority, countermeasures like a properly aimed projectile are nonetheless very a lot a risk to the laser-controlled drone.