acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM TechNews

Harnessing Public Smartphones to Track Drones


View as: Print Mobile App Share:
The new system uses smartphones to detect the Wi-Fi signals of drones.

Researchers at Zhejian University in China have developed a method of tracking unfamiliar drones via crowdsensing.

Credit: iStock

Researchers at Zhejian University in China have developed a method of tracking unfamiliar drones using crowdsensing, leveraging consumer smartphones to detect the Wi-Fi signals of nearby drones.

The researchers created a database of known MAC addresses and SSIDs from all commercial drone manufacturers, allowing them to distinguish between drones and other Wi-Fi sources.

If the new Cost-Effective Crowdsensing System for Detecting and LocAlizing Drones (CEDAR) system detects a MAC address or SSID that is not in the database, the researchers can analyze the mobility patterns of the Wi-Fi signal to assess the likelihood it came from a drone.

The researchers found the system can detect drones within 350 meters and with an average accuracy of 87%, when no preliminary MAC addresses or SSIDs are found in the database.

From IEEE Spectrum
View Full Article

 

Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account