Passive RF Sensing (Direction Finding / Geolocation)

Lunewave is developing a Luneburg Lens Enabled Broadband RF Signal Detection, Direction Finding and Geolocation System in a Drone Network. This is made possible by a 3D printed Luneburg lens antenna which is renowned for its unique design, offering a range of advantages such as wide bandwidth, simple beam forming, and complete angle coverage (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

• The Luneburg lens enabled, collaborative drone network to detect and geolocate RF sources in a contested combat battlespace faster and with more precision.
• With at least 6x the bandwidth and 6x the field of view (FOV), this low SWaP-C solution will save lives by dramatically enhancing SIGINT collections and EM Spectrum Ops.

Applications on Broad Range of Platforms (Ground, Sea and Air)

• SIGINT (Detection, Classification, Direction Finding and Geolocation)
• RF Spectrum Situation Awareness and Management
• Small-UAS Detection

Initial Testing Results

Radar DF Lidar GPS Drone Flight Path XY XZ - YouTube

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Radar DF Lidar GPS Drone Flight Path XY XZ

Video 1: Detections of Group 1 UAS using Lunewave’s passive Direction-Finding system (red dashed line; updated every 4 seconds), Lunewave’s millimeter-wave imaging radar (magenta points) and a commercial lidar (black points).

DF GPS Drone Flight Path XY XZ - YouTube

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DF GPS Drone Flight Path XY XZ

Video 2: Comparison of Detected Azimuth and Elevation Angles (red dashed line) of the drone and GPS recorded trajectory (blue cross). Drone altitude is also labeled in the x-y view. Measured angles of arrivals are updated every 4 seconds in this data (real time frame rate is coming).

Figure: Measured azimuth and elevation angles of a Group 1 UAS compared with its GPS recorded locations. Some small deviations are accounted for by GPS uncertainties and time synchronization between the DF system and GPS.