Localisation radar technology for drone navigation in GNSS denied environments

Resilient localisation for Uncrewed Air Systems (UAS) is vital if they are to complete their mission when satellite navigation systems (GNSS) are temporarily unavailable, suffer interference by buildings, or have been actively blocked.

The ARC-Locate micro radar from Cambridge Sensoriis provides a localisation capability based upon direct radar range measurement that is independent of satellites and invulnerable to jamming mechanisms. Radar is also unaffected by poor visibility, lighting, and bad weather, unlike camera-based localisation. The ARC system is designed for high visibility between one or more compatible ARC radars. An ARC Primary on the UAS will report the range, bearing and elevation to other ARC Secondaries on the ground, whilst ignoring all radar reflections from the background.

ARC-Locate radar enables a last mile resupply drone, or ground vehicle to locate the endpoint of a mission within centimetres, without the need for satellite positioning or inter communication at either end, if the forward position has a Sensoriis ARC radar. Equally the UAS can return to origin through guidance of a further ARC radar.

With our ARC technology, we can also enable the precise monitoring of the position of the UAS relative to a travel zone or flight corridor, also known as zonal tethering. This allows the system operator to restrict the UAS to a defined location, especially useful where GNSS may be unavailable.

In the case of Naval resupply, ARC-Locate can accurately locate and enable the return of the drone to the ship which may have moved during the mission, again without satellite positioning or drone-to-ship radio communication.

The ARC micro radar is extremely low power, lightweight, and resilient to counter measures that defeat satellite positioning systems.

Each ARC device can be configured with a unique code that is reported over the radar carrier frequency.

The system supports ‘Default Silent’ technology. The ARC radar on the ground remains silent, non-transmitting, until interrogated by a compatible radar in a recognised encoded band. This is particularly important in military deployments where electronic radio stealth is required.