SaTC: CORE: Medium: Collaborative: Enforcement of Geofencing Policies for Commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems

在可预见的未来，依赖于无人机系统（UAS）的服务和应用的采用预计将继续加速。这些服务和应用包括搜索和救援、作物监控、实时交通监控、关键基础设施检查等。随着无人机系统的不断发展，世界各地的航空监管机构正面临着一个具有挑战性的困境，即如何将无人机系统安全整合到各自的国家空域系统中，并强制执行相关法规，包括执行禁飞区。目前的无人机缺乏有效的机载飞行限制，无法进入关键空域，例如机场跑道和核电站。此外，必须保障市民的安全和私隐不受意外和非意外的无人机入侵。该项目旨在通过开发进攻和防御措施，以自动、可控和可靠的方式探测、识别和击落侵犯受控/限制空域的无人机，以满足这些关键需求。阻止无人机侵入限制空域的方法将分为三个阶段：(1)使用无源雷达探测入侵，该雷达利用入侵者本身的机会信号和射频通信/发射；(2)部署一架或多架防御无人机，能够学习入侵者的动机和行为，在入侵者采取规避行动的情况下，对其进行追击并保持接近；(3)让防御无人机发起攻击措施，操纵/破坏入侵者赖以保持空中状态的传感器和驱动信号。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The adoption of services and applications that rely on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is expected to continue its acceleration for the foreseeable future. Such services and applications include search and rescue, crop monitoring, real-time traffic monitoring, critical infrastructure inspections, and others. As UAS continue to proliferate, aviation regulatory agencies around the world are facing a challenging dilemma in terms of safely integrating UAS operations into their respective national airspace systems and enforcing their compliance to relevant regulations, including enforcement of no fly-zones. Current UAS lack effective on-board flight restrictions that would prevent them from entering critical airspace, e.g., airport runways and nuclear power plants. Furthermore, it is essential that the safety and privacy of members of the public be safeguarded from accidental and non-accidental UAS incursions. This project aims to address these critical needs by developing offensive and defensive measures for detecting, identifying, and bringing down UAS that violate controlled/restricted airspace in an automated, controlled, and reliable manner.A three phase approach to thwarting a UAS encroaching on restricted airspace will be used: (1) detect the incursion using passive radar that exploits signals of opportunity and radio frequency (RF) communications/emissions from the encroacher itself; (2) deploy one or more defender UAS, capable of learning the motivations and behaviors of the encroacher, to pursue the UAS and gain and maintain proximity to it even should the encroacher take evasive action; and (3) have the defender UAS launch offensive measures that manipulate/compromise the sensor and actuation signals the encroacher relies on to stay airborne.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.