Sense and Avoid for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems
Aerotenna’s uSharp Sense-and-Avoid Radar is a commercially available sense and avoid solution for small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS). The uSharp radar utilizes microwave radar in the K-band (24 GHz) frequency range to detect objects in the horizontal plane within a full 360 degrees (Aerotenna Technology, n.d.). The use of microwave radar as opposed to commonly utilized sensors such as electrooptical (EO) and infrared (IR) cameras or Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), enables a sUAS equipped with uSharp to sense and avoid other objects in all weather (heavy rain, fog, snow, clouds) and visibility conditions (night or low light levels) (Aerotenna Technology, n.d.). The radar consists of eight antennas arranged in an octagonal formation and has a highly accurate range resolution of five centimeters and a response rate of 90 Hertz (Aerotenna, 2016). It also has a range of 0.5 to 120 meters and can detect both moving and stationary objects (uSharp, 2017). The ability to de