Discussions

Dear all, 

A client of mine (a university researcher) is building a GCS for controlling multiple UAVs for outdoor flight missions. The GCS will give each UAV a set of waypoints, and then the UAVs should fly to the waypoints accordingly. Think of a UAV for surveying a large area, only that a couple of them autonomously flying at the same time. 

The question is, is there a way for one UAV to detect other UAVs while in mid-air? This is to detect and maintain distance between each other, so as to avoid collision. So the idea is that while in flight, if another UAV gets too close, the 'UAV avoidance' system will take over, and when it is safe again, it will continue with the mission given by the GCS. 

So the system doesn't have to always know where the others are, it must only know when any others is too near to itself. 

I was thinking about a 'beacon' sort of thing, where each UAV will carry a transponder to send out beeps. If one UAV detects the beep of another, then they are too close. If no beep detected, then its safe. So I was thinking of making this transponder using Bluetooth, since it has limited but good enough range. So the system simply scans for other Bluetooth devices, and if any is detected, it would be considered unsafe, too close. But would these scans be fast enough to be practical in mid-flight? What do you think?

Or if you know of any readily available 'UAV-to-UAV detection' system that might do the job, please let me know! 

Arif