WO2018044231A1

WO2018044231A1 - System and method for detecting, intercepting and taking over control of multiple rogue drones simultaneously

Info

Publication number: WO2018044231A1
Application number: PCT/SG2016/050434
Authority: WO
Inventors: Frankie CHAN KOK LIANG; Foo MOO TENG; Edgardo Ii OSILLADA GONZALES; Anna Veronica BATERINA
Original assignee: Global Expert Team Sdn Bhd
Current assignee: Global Expert Team Sdn Bhd
Priority date: 2016-09-05
Filing date: 2016-09-05
Publication date: 2018-03-08
Anticipated expiration: 2019-03-05

Abstract

A system for detecting, intercepting and taking over control of multiple drones simultaneously, comprising a scanner with multiple antenna array that supports scanning frequencies of 433 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.0-5.8 GHz, a GPS spoofer, a radio frequency (RF) jammer and a main system on a Linux based operating system. The scanner receives and transmits signals, such as de-authentication signal to the multiple drones. The GPS spoofer spoofs the location information. The RF jammer jams drones that cannot be intercepted and taken control of. The main system is loaded with central management software for managing the detecting, intercepting and taking over control of the drone using the scanner, GPS spoofer and RF jammer.

Description

System and Method for Detecting, Intercepting and Taking Over Control of Multiple Rogue Drones Simultaneously Technical Field

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to computer and digital processing systems for scanning, detecting, intercepting and taking over the control of multiple rouge drones simultaneously. Background Art

Drones are relatively new technology. However, it is readily available for consumer purchase. Some famous consumer and hobbyist drones easily available in the market are Parrot, DJI and Syma. Onboard drone cameras are capable of storing video from few minutes to few hours long video on a microSD card, SD card or USB drive. More advanced drone may have feature to allow for real-time upload of video to external storage network. Most drones today have fully operational Wi-Fi, Radio Frequency (RF) and Bluetooth antennas or a combination of all two or three. Drone movement can be preprogrammed or manually controlled by a hand-held device, which can be a smart phone, tablet or radio controller. Manual control requires radio frequency and can operate in several frequency bands:

· Various short range FM and UHF;

• Unregulated frequency bands (typically 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz); and

• Bluetooth frequency bands (very short range) - for mini or micro drones. Movement is typically along the x- and y-axes. It can be preprogrammed via code (some through a manual input Graphical User Interface, GUI), provided through reference coordinates from a GPS. Because of these abilities, individuals and organizations must be aware of the threats drones can pose.

Here are some threats and scenarios that drone can pose:

• Drone flying directly over nuclear plant infrastructure such as cooling towers, where they can simply be shut off or drop while carrying an explosive payload;

• Drones targeting sensitive areas such as power retransmission stations where touching two lines is enough to cause a blackout;

• Drone submarines that can dive themselves into hydroelectric turbines or detonate an explosive next to an aging dam.

• Some higher end camera and software allow drone operators to incorporate infrared and night vision, which could easily be employed to watch and document security patrols around government and federal buildings, airports, corporate and public locations and military installations.

• Drones can be shut down in the middle of the flight and causing injury to passerby and also property damage, or flown into places such as buildings, open public area, traffic jam area and others.

• Drones can be flown into sports venues packed with spectators such as stadiums. Removing the plastic guards or protector cover essentially turns the drones into flying, radio-controlled razor blades. Imagine the injury or damage it can cause. What if it carries explosive material sabotage by certain terrorist groups?

• Drones can be flown into commercial jets flight path and hit the jet engines especially during taking off and landing. Interestingly enough, this scenario has played out hundreds of times in the past few months at several airports and occurred regularly in the United State of America (USA).

• Terrorist organizations could easily design and build a drone capable of carrying several pounds of explosives into public areas and government buildings causing intensive damages and live loses.

Considering such as great threats drone can pose to infrastructure and human beings, we come out with the system and method with design that can detect, intercept and take over control of multiple Wi-Fi drones.

Technical Problem

There are many current inventions or solutions in the market to counter drones. However, none of them provide sufficient coverage to counter multiple drones simultaneously. Here are some list of current inventions and solutions:

· Catching a drone with a net. There are some solutions that use a drone carrying a net to intercept and catch the rogue drone flying into restricted area. However, this will require you to have the visibility of the rogue drone approaching and be able to take off the drone interceptor to intercept the flight path of the rogue drone. This won't be feasible if the area is dark such as at night or there are multiple rogue drones approaching at the same time.

• Catching a drone with an eagle. Eagle has been trained by Dutch police to intercept and catch a rogue drone. However, this might cause injury to the bird if the drone uses a strong spin propeller. Animal watch group will strongly oppose to this solution.

• Optical signal and infrared cameras. The solution is potentially to be blocked by buildings, trees and any structure. Besides, it is also subjected to false alarms and inaccuracies. Optical signal and infrared is usually very short range and therefore consider expensive solution.

• Radar. The solution is expensive. Usually, it comes with very high false alarm rate and impractical for small drone detection. It does not really detect small drones. In the United States of America (USA), the active RADAR system requires Federal Communication Commission (FCC) approval and must not interfere with radio frequencies (RF).

• Laser and Light Detection & Range (LIDAR). The solution is very expensive. Also, it has lots of legal issues and it is unlawful to shoot down drones in countries such as the United State of America (USA) even the drone flies above the private property. To execute, you first need to detect. It has limited range especially during bad weather. Also, it has high false alarm and inaccuracies.

• Radio frequency or signal jammer to jam the entire operating radio frequency channel. This solution has lots of legal issues as it is usually not permitted by law in most of the countries. Besides, it is inefficient on many types of drones, especially those drones capable of auto-pilot (fly with GPS location pre-set). Furthermore, it is subjective to potential false alarms and inaccuracies.

The current available invention or solutions as listed above lack the readiness and completeness to counter multi-drone intrusion or assault.

Solution to Problem

Our invention will overcome the current market invention lack of in countering rogue drones as well as more importantly multi-drone intrusion or assault. By being able to detect the multi-drone simultaneously, our invention can take appropriate action to neutralize the potential threats as mentioned above. Summary of the Invention

Intruder flies Drone close and into the No Drone Zone or restricted area such as Airport, Power Plant, Military Base, President Palace, Government Buildings & etc. The invented system will automatically and continuously scan the air to find and identify intruding Drone (433MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.0-5.8GHz frequency bands) flying in the vicinity of No Drone Zone.

A de-authentication signal can be sent to the intruding drone to disassociate/disconnect the Intruder from controlling the drone that approaching the No Drone Zone. The invented system will then establish a connection to the loose drone and immediately take over the control of the intruding drone. The invented system can instruct the drone to land at specific area through the X-Y axes calibration and gracefully shut it down or can instruct the drone to fly back to point of origin that if fly from or crash it where it flies. By using multiple adapter

If the drone is auto-piloted through a pre-programmed route, the invented system has a GPS spoofing feature that intend to cheat the drone by sending fake GPS location signal to the drone and make it fly to a specific location (which it where we want it to be but to the drone, it thought it has fly to the right path),

Advantageous Effects of Invention

Here is the list of advantages effects of the invention:

- Invention does not affect by day or night or requirement of line of sight to detect the intrusion of rogue drones. So, it can operate 24 by 7 whole year round.

- Invention will not be restricted by multi-drone assault as it is able to scan multi-drone within vicinity coverage and take correctly measure. - Invention does not limit to manual piloted drone as it also supports auto- piloted drone (which fly through GPS pre-setting) detection, interception and take over control. Detailed Description of Drawings

The two diagrams will show the full implementation pictures include system parts as well as the processes involved for achieving multiple drone detection and take over control. Refer to brief description of Drawings below. Fig. 1 shows the overall processes of the invented system. It depicts the action from scan, detect and identify, disassociate, connect, take over control, command instructions to land, crash or go back and also a GPS spoofing capability for auto-pilot drones. Firstly, the system will scan 101 the target surrounding area for any intruding drones with radio frequency 433MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.0-5.8GHz. Any intruding drone operating at these frequencies can detected and identified 102. The system will send de-association signal 103 to the drone if the drone to disconnect it controller. Then, the system will connect 104 to the drone and to take over the control 105 of the drone. It can give instructions to the drone either to land, crash or go back 106 to where it comes from through x and y-axes maneuver. The system also has the capability to spoof the GPS signal 107 to provide the wrong GPS information to the auto-pilot drone flying into the restricted area. For drone that cannot disassociated, RF jamming 108 will be executed up to a maximum of 50 meters from the restricted area. Fig. 2 shows the invented systems with component parts for an operation against multiple rogue drones intruding a none fly zone or restricted area. Drone or multiple different type of drones here refer to 005A, 005B, 005C, 005D and 005E can be piloted by man or pre-programmed route through GPS location setting to enter into restricted area or none fly zone. The invention system includes Main System 001 which is a Linux based computer system with software design to perform functions that include radio frequency scanning, detecting and identifying, take over control, instruct drones to land, crash or go back to location it flies from, perform GPS spoofing of location, jamming of RF signals, as well as analysis to perform locating of drone controllers. All these functionalities are performed through the integrated use and processes of the devices that include Multiple Antenna Array 002, GPS Spoofing Device 003 and RF Jammer 004.

Claims

[Claim 1 ] A system for detecting, intercepting and taking over control of multiple rogue drones simultaneously. The system consists of:

• A scanner with multiple antenna array that support different range of frequencies scanning which include 433 MHz, 2.4GHz and also 5.0- 5.8GHz frequency range. The antennas can receive (listen) and transmit signal simultaneously as it supports transmitting of certain signal (de-authentication signal) to targeted drones.

• A GPS spoofing device to spoof and trick the auto-pilot drone which fly by location information provided by GPS satellites to think that it flies to the wrong location and will fly out of the coverage site (none fly zone or restricted area).

• A radio frequency (RF) jammer for short distance jamming of drones that cannot be intercepted and take over control.

• A main system with Linux based operating system loaded with central management software for managing the scanner antennas for detecting, intercepting and taking over control of multiple drones, managing the GPS spoofing device and the RF jammer.

[Claim 2 ] The scanner, part of the entire system with multiple antenna array deployment is able to scan multiple frequency channels, including 433 MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.0-5.8GHz frequency bands. The receiving data will be fed to the main system which is able to list out and identify the existing of drones within the scan vicinity. Through the same antenna array, a disassociation signal can also be sent to the intruding drone(s) and disconnect off the original controller and allow the main system connect to the drone. Once the drone is being control, it can be instructed to land immediately, land at a specific location, crash or go back to where it flies from.

[Claim 3 ] The GPS spoofing devices, part of the entire system can spoof or trick the auto-pilot drone which is not controlled by a man-managed controller and fly by location information provided through GPS satellites. It can create and send a false GPS signal to the intruding drone and make the drone thinks that it flies to the wrong location and will fly out of the restricted area.

[Claim 4 ] The RF jammer, part of the entire system can jam the entire RF at short distance (to a maximum of 50 meter) that will result in some drone be forced land or go back to the original location it flies from. It is only use when there is no other successful way to restrict the intruding drones through the Claim 2 and Claim 3.

[Claim 5 ] The main system which includes the invention software to centrally manage the scanner antenna array, GPS spoofing device and RF jammer. It comes with Web Management Graphical User Interface

(GUI) where scanned data (which include the drone/object and frequencies it fly) of intruding drone data, action data (instructions data set from the Main System) and status with logs is available for visualization and analysis.