HENSOLDT and Diehl have developed the demonstrator of a sensor system for avoiding collisions between aircraft. At the same time, the partners, together with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), have demonstrated in practice that such a sensor system consisting of radar and a camera can reliably detect objects in the flight path of UAVs. The recognition of such situations is one of the essential requirements for deploying unmanned aerial vehicles in controlled airspace. As part of the research project known as ‘Programme Sense-and-Avoid – national’ (ProSA-n), HENSOLDT has designed a so-called detect-and-avoid radar system and flight tested it onboard the DLR test aircraft Do-228 D-CODE in real scenarios.
The radar reliably detected flying objects within a range of 220 degrees in front of the UAV at a distance of more than 10 kilometres by day and by night and in all weather conditions. Thanks to the precise measurement of the flight direction, collisions can be avoided at an early stage. Furthermore, the sensor also assumes all the functions of a weather radar system.
HENSOLDT’s detect-and-avoid radar uses state-of-the-art AESA technology (Active Electronically Scanned Array), which allows several detection tasks to be carried out at the same time and enables objects to be detected very fast.
