Involuntary Signal-Based Grounding of Civilian Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in Civilian Airspace

Abstract

This thesis investigates the involuntary signal-based grounding of civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in unauthorized air spaces. The technique proposed here will forcibly land unauthorized UAS in a given area in such a way that the UAS will not be harmed, and the pilot cannot stop the landing. The technique will not involuntarily ground authorized drones which will be determined prior to the landing. Unauthorized airspaces include military bases, university campuses, areas affected by a natural disaster, and stadiums for public events. This thesis proposes an early prototype of a hardware-based signal based involuntary grounding technique to handle the problem by immediately grounding unauthorized drones. Research in the development of UAS is in the direction of airspace integration. For the potential of airspace integration three communication protocols were evaluated: LoRa WAN, Bluetooth 5, and Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) for their long range capabilities. Of the three technologies, LoRa WAN transmitted the farthest, however the FSK module transmitted a comparable distance at a lower power. The power measurements were taken using existing modules, however, due to LoRa using a higher frequency than the FSK module this outcome was expected