GNSS based passive UAV monitoring: feasibility study

As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming more accessible and easier to use, the need for a reliable and easy to deploy monitoring solution has become the subject of great importance in defence, security and commercial sectors. In this work, a novel passive bistatic radar is proposed to facilitate UAV detection and localisation by exploiting Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) as illuminators of opportunity (IO). The result of a feasibility study conducted to determine the maximum operational range of the system under different configurations as well as its parameter estimation capabilities were evaluated through simulations. To facilitate multiple satellites signals, a multiple-input single-output (MISO) approach is adapted to estimate the target’s location and velocity.