MEPhI: Locator for UAV

The main articles are:

• Unmanned aerial vehicle (drone, UAV)
• Robots (robotics)

2024: Portable Radar Development

Employees of the Engineering Center of NRNU MEPhI have developed a portable radar designed for installation on unmanned aerial vehicles. The device allows you to scan the earth's surface from a high height and in any weather. MEPhI announced this on February 21, 2024.

source = MEPhI

As the project manager, director of the Engineering Center Vladimir Klokov said, such a locator can be used for a large set of tasks - mapping the area and compiling its 3D model, monitoring flooding, tracking oil spills; in the Arctic, such a radar can be used to monitor sea ice and draw up a safe route for ships moving along the Arctic Ocean. The locator is capable of scanning a ten-kilometer-wide strip of terrain, while its resolution allows you to see objects up to 50 centimeters in size on the ground.

The most important feature of the radar station created at the university, and its difference from its analogues, is that its integral part of the radar is a processor with original software that allows you to convert radar scanning data into visual images. The locator either saves the created pictures in memory, or transmits them by radio to external devices - in real or delayed time.

The locator weight does not exceed 3 kilograms, and the power demand is from 20 to 40 W. Of course, it would be difficult to install such equipment on a very small quadcopter - the developers of a portable radar assume that it will be installed on aircraft-type drones with gasoline or kerosene engines.

An important advantage of radar surveying of the area compared to traditional photography is, firstly, that it creates a three-dimensional rather than two-dimensional model of the area, secondly, that the shooting can be carried out from an altitude of up to 3 km, and thirdly, that radio scanning of the area can be carried out in almost any weather.