Marshall Radio Develops Tracking & Recovery Solutions for UAVs

By Mike Ball / 07 Apr 2018
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UAV-Tracker-on-Raven

Marshall Radio Telemetry is a leading designer and manufacturer of lightweight, portable tracking equipment to find targets over long distances or to recover valuable assets lost in the field. Originally designed for relocating hunting falcons, Marshall’s products are ideal for the tracking and recovery of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Marshall technology has been successfully deployed by U.S. SOCOM and other clients to quickly locate and recover costly UAVs after unintentional fly-aways, saving significant amounts of time and money. Marshall transmitters can be connected as standard to the fuselage of the AeroVironment Raven UAS, and custom attachment solutions can also be developed.

UAV Transmitter BeaconRadio Transmitter Beacons are available in five different models weighing from 3 to 9 grams to meet different unmanned aircraft tracking needs. Housed in cases machined from tough 7075 aircraft aluminium, the transmitters can withstand high physical shock, electric fields and ESD events, and are specially engineered to provide perfect frequency stability over extreme temperatures to operate between -20F and 150F without signal drift. Antenna lengths vary between 7 and 13 inches depending on the model used.

The Field Marshall direction finding receiver is used to locate and recover an unmanned aircraft by pointing the integral directional antenna in the direction of the strongest signal and moving toward it until the target containing the transmitter is found. The receivers are ‘channelized’ for simple operation, where each transmitter has a specific frequency for easy identification.

Direction Finding ReceiverTwo models of Field Marshall receiver are available. Both receivers incorporate the same collapsible three-element directional yagi antenna into a one-piece, lightweight and portable design. The Field Marshall 1000 covers one entire 1000KHZ band (tracking up to 10 unique transmitters), and the Field Marshall 5000 covers 5 bands (5000KHz), can track up to 50 targets, and uses a state-of-the-art half-size antenna for ultra-compact portability and ease of use.

Marshall receivers are housed in a rugged case machined from aircraft aluminium to shield receiver electronics from abuse and unwanted signals from all other sources. Control panels are back-lit with red light to protect the user’s night vision during after-dark operations.

To find out more about Marshall Radio’s UAV tracking and recovery solutions, please visit their profile:
https://www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com/company/marshall-radio-telemetry/

Posted by Mike Ball Mike Ball is our resident technical editor here at Unmanned Systems Technology. Combining his passion for teaching, advanced engineering and all things unmanned, Mike keeps a watchful eye over everything related to the unmanned technical sector. With over 10 years’ experience in the unmanned field and a degree in engineering, Mike’s been heading up our technical team here for the last 8 years. Connect & Contact