Passive multispectral sensor architecture for radar-EOIR sensor fusion for low SWAP UAS sense and avoid

This paper proposes an approach for implementing sense-and-avoid on small unmanned aircraft. The system uses two complimentary passive instruments. First, a passive radar is used to sense a volume around the protected aircraft and identify potential conflicts. Second, an EO/IR system focuses on the targets generated by the passive radar and is used to confirm and classify threat aircraft. Proof-of-concept experiments are described along with optimization approaches for minimizing the total size, weight, and power requirements of the final system.