RADIO FREQUENCY DEVICE DETECTION AND INTERVENTION
Systems, devices and methods are disclosed for detecting, characterizing and engaging unmanned vehicles. In one aspect, a method includes detecting an object, such as an unmanned aerial, land or aquatic vehicle that communicates using a radio control (RC) communications protocol, traveling to a zone including scanning one or more frequencies of RF signals; analyzing one or both of time and frequency information of the RF signals to characterize the detected object; and engaging the detected object as an authorized or unauthorized object in the monitored zone.
1 . A method for monitoring radio control (RC) vehicles in a designated area, comprising:
detecting a RC vehicle traveling in a predefined zone that communicates using a RC communications protocol, the detecting including:
scanning a plurality of frequencies of one or more radio frequency (RF) signals,
measuring RF power in one or more frequency bands of the scanned plurality of frequencies, and
generating a temporal RF signature based at least in part on the measured RF power; and
analyzing at least one of time and frequency information of the one or more RF signals to characterize one or more features of the detected RC vehicle, the analyzing including:
determining a frequency hopping scheme of the RC communications protocol used by the RC vehicle, and
determining a timing and an order of the frequency hopping scheme to produce an RC signature of the RC vehicle.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predefined zone is monitored by one or more wireless signal detection units comprising one or more antennas in communication with one or more transceivers, and wherein the detecting includes capturing one or more wireless communication signals emanated by the RC vehicle.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more frequency bands include one or more of 2.4 GHz, 6.2 GHz, 5.8 GHz, 1.3 GHz, 900 MHz, or 433 MHz radio control bands.
4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: comparing the temporal RF signature to one or more known RC protocols.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining communication frequencies used by the RC vehicle.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
comparing the RC signature of the RC vehicle to one or more known RC protocols to identify the RC communications protocol; and
determining a characteristic of the RC vehicle including one or more of a make, model number, and a series number.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the RF power is performed using a phase locked loop technique including mixing the one or more scanned RF signals with a local oscillator signal provided by a phase locked loop unit to shift a frequency of the one or more scanned RF signals to an intermediate frequency (IF) producing an IF signal, filtering the IF signal with a narrow-band filter, amplifying the filtered IF signal, and measuring the power of the amplified IF signal using an RF power detector to produce an analog output whose amplitude is related to the power of the one or more scanned RF signals.
8 . The method of any of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying whether the RC vehicle is an authorized or an unauthorized object in the predefined zone; and
in response to identifying that the RC vehicle is an unauthorized object, engaging the RC vehicle by transmitting an intervening signal in synchrony with the RC communication protocol of the RC vehicle.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein transmitting the intervening signal includes transmitting RF signals at a precise frequency and timing as the frequency hopping scheme exhibited by the RC vehicle.
10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the engaging includes seizing control of the RC vehicle by injecting one or more data packets to control the object's travel, or disrupting normal communication of the RC vehicle to disable remote control between the RC vehicle and the RC vehicle's operator.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predefined zone includes a first zone and a second zone at least partially outside the first zone.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first zone includes a site or location including at least one of a stadium, a school, a governmental facility, a monument, a commercial building, a factory, a power facility or power distribution line, a fuel processing facility or fuel distribution line, a transportation center including an airport, train station, ship port, or bus station, a residence, a shopping center, and a national border.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the RC vehicle comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an unmanned terrestrial vehicle (UTV), or an unmanned marine vehicle (UMV).
14 . A system to detect, characterize, and engage radio control (RC) vehicles using radio control communication signals, the system comprising:
one or more receiving antennas configured to receive one or more radio frequency (RF) communication signals on a plurality of frequencies emanating from an RC vehicle in communicative range of the one or more receiving antennas;
a transceiver unit in communication with the one or more antennas to pre-process the one or more received RF communication signals and to generate one or more RF output signals, the transceiver unit including one or more transceivers and a data processing unit;
one or more transmit antennas configured to transmit the one or more RF output signals towards the RC vehicle; and
a controller unit in communication with the transceiver unit to:
analyze at least one of time and frequency information of the one or more RF communication signals to determine a frequency hopping scheme of a RC communications protocol used by the RC vehicle and determine a timing and an order of the frequency hopping scheme to produce an RC signature of the RC vehicle; and
engage the RC vehicle by commanding the transceiver unit to produce the one or more RF output signals in synchrony with the RC signature of the RC vehicle.
15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more receiving antennas include one or both of a directional antenna and an omnidirectional antenna.
16 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more transmit antennas include one or both of a directional antenna and an omnidirectional antenna.
17 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more transmit antennas are configured to transmit the one or more RF output signals on a plurality of frequencies associated with one or more radio control frequency bands.
18 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more receiving antennas are configured to scan frequencies associated with one or more radio control frequency bands.
19 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the one or more radio control frequency bands are selected from a group consisting of 433 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.3 GHz, 2.4 GHz, 4 GHz, 6.2 GHz, and 5.8 GHz frequency bands.
20 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more receiving antennas and/or one or more transmit antennas include a plurality of antennas arranged in one or more antenna arrays.
21 . The system of claim 20 , wherein the transceiver unit includes a first transceiver group including an arrangement of radio transceiver integrated circuits (ICs) in communication with an array of receiving antennas, and a second transceiver group including an arrangement of radio transceiver ICs in communication with an array of transmit antennas.
22 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the transceiver unit is configured to pre-process the one or more received RF communication signals by commanding the one or more receiving antennas to scan a plurality of frequencies of RF signals, measuring the RF power in one or more frequency bands associated with the plurality of frequencies, and generating a temporal RF signature based at least in part on the measured RF power.
23 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the transceiver unit includes a phase locked loop unit configured to measure the RF power by mixing the one or more scanned RF signals with a local oscillator signal to shift a frequency of the one or more scanned RF signals to an intermediate frequency (IF) producing an IF signal, filtering the IF signal with a narrow-band filter, and amplifying the filtered IF signal; and an RF power detector configured to measure the power of the amplified IF signal to produce an analog output whose amplitude is related to the power of the one or more scanned RF signals.
24 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the controller unit is further configured to identify whether the RC vehicle as an authorized or an unauthorized object in the predefined zone, and in response to identifying that the RC vehicle is an unauthorized object, to engage the RC vehicle by transmitting an intervening signal in synchrony with the RC communication protocol of the RC vehicle.
25 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the controller unit includes a computer including a processor and memory storing executable software modules including one or more of an automated RC protocol detection algorithm, a frequency hopping scheme detection algorithm, and a scheduled RC protocol interference algorithm.
26 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the transceiver unit includes a low-noise amplifier and a band-pass filter.
27 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more receiving antennas are arranged to form a predefined zone including a first zone and a second zone at least partially outside the first zone.
28 . The system of claim 27 , wherein the first zone includes a site or location including at least one of a stadium, a school, a governmental facility, a monument, a commercial building, a factory, a power facility or power distribution line, a fuel processing facility or fuel distribution line, a transportation center including an airport, train station, ship port, or bus station, a residence, a shopping center, and a national border.
29 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the RC vehicle comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an unmanned terrestrial vehicle (UTV), or an unmanned marine vehicle (UMV).
30 . The system of claim 14 , further comprising: a display device to provide a user interface to display and/or receive user instructions.
31 . The system of claim 30 , wherein the display device includes one or more of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a smartphone, a tablet, and a wearable computing device.
32 . A computer program comprising a set of instructions, which, when executed by a computerized device, cause the computerized device to perform a method of monitoring radio control (RC) vehicles in a designated area, the method comprising:
detecting a RC vehicle traveling in a predefined zone that communicates using a RC communications protocol, the detecting including:
scanning a plurality of frequencies of one or more radio frequency (RF) signals,
measuring RF power in one or more frequency bands of the scanned plurality of frequencies, and
generating a temporal RF signature based at least in part on the measured RF power; and
analyzing at least one of time and frequency information of the one or more RF signals to characterize one or more features of the detected RC vehicle, the analyzing including:
determining a frequency hopping scheme of the RC communications protocol used by the RC vehicle, and
determining a timing and an order of the frequency hopping scheme to produce an RC signature of the RC vehicle.