すべて
← Back to Squawk list
Heathrow Airport installs anti-drone system that can locate UAV pilots
The UK knows first-hand how disruptive drones can be to major airports. Last March, it introduced legislation to widen the drone no-fly zone around airports to five kilometers. Now, to enforce the new rules, London's Heathrow Airport has installed a system to detect and identify unauthorized UAVs. (www.engadget.com) さらに...
Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
A good idea but it will only work if the drone pilot is actually in control of the drone. A lot of times they are on internal guidance by GPS and the pilot only takes control when it is back in the area he launched from.
I'll believe it (locating the pilot) when I see it. Unless someone can explain exactly how one can be tracked flying a drone from a mile away to within a few feet of their location.
I have similar concerns - look up the UK’s mythical TV detector vans. But unlike the stories of hunting TV receivers, hunting transmitters is actually plausible. Canadian flight service stations have VHF-DF. Coast guard stations triangulate a position at sea in about three seconds. Ham radio operators do direction finding as a sport. If you know what frequency the controller is sending, I imagine two or three stations, each costing under a thousand dollars, made from equipment available to hobbyists, would do the job.
Most hobby drones use the unregulated 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands that are also used by Wifi, IoT devices, garage door openers etc. There are going to be hundreds if not thousands of radios using these bands in the vicinity of Heathrow. Identifying which is controlling the drone would seem to be quite a challenge.
I would guess from frequency identification and location triangulation. Like the technology that will show on your phone your location to within a few feet.
How will this stop drones that are operating on an autopilot without an operator? It would be pretty easy nowadays to setup a drone that will fly autonomously after launching. Operator launches the drone, turns off the transmitter and walks away (disabling or not implementing RTH function). Just set it up to fly a box pattern near the approach end of an active runway.
