Adding radar?

[stingrayOZ]

Does anyone know or has tried or thought about adding radar to a UAV?

In particular Im thinking doppler continous wave radar. Many uses but primary as a altimeter.

With various kits avalible these days, long range, etc has anyone included on on a UAV?

Thoughts

[levelution]

Who makes kits for doppler radar?

[dalbert02]

Do a search on home made radar. That is a serious project. The ones I have seen are huge and expensive. I doubt one could be made light enough for our purposes.
-dave

[macboffin]

Radar is heavy, and power-hungry. In the "Real" UAV world there are radar equipped aircraft, but they are large, and funded from the bottomless pocket of the tax-payer.
There are much cheaper and easier ways to sense altitude, barometric pressure for example; there are even watches with a barometric height read-out which could be converted to purpose. Or go the easy way, check out e-nav website.

[cmetom]

I happened across this earlier today, and it may be relevant:

http://members.home.nl/b.vandam/lonely/pagina40.html
It's a basic ultrasonic rangefinder based on a PIC microcontroller.
It may be a start or basis from which someone here could build something integratable with an UAV

[Keith43221]

Dude, if you could radar on a small UAV you could have a dog fighting parter, and be the only person at the field.
That would be crazy!

[alexcmag]

I happened across this earlier today, and it may be relevant:

http://members.home.nl/b.vandam/lonely/pagina40.html
It's a basic ultrasonic rangefinder based on a PIC microcontroller.
It may be a start or basis from which someone here could build something integratable with an UAV

I've tested this circuit but used by own PIC program (it is a simple program actually, I just wanted to make output high when distance is below 30cm and low when farther).

I tested with a dual channel scope and it is very effective from 3cm to 3m even with small objects, so I think it can be a cheap and effective solution for precise altitude reading on landing.

It takes around 30ms to read distance (10ms to make oscilator stable more 20ms to send pulse and get echo from 3m), so it is easy to get a 30Hz readout, enough to soften a landing.

There are pressure sensors from Freescale ( www.freescale.com ) and some open source altimeter projects on web.

These are not perfect solutions, but I think they are cheap, light and effective enough for small UAVs.

[treehog]

yeah a small ground sensor device would be good that can see three feet or one metre

and cheap

keep going

Ralf

Small marine craft have small radars but would need a big motor to drive typical car alternator of 50 amps and suitable 12 volt of say gell cell 20 amps so UAV will need to be probably 250c motor or bigger

[Tuner]

One thought I have always had about the radar thing is all these cars out their now a days have radar in the bumper. If I remember correctly in Popular science the article was called "radar on a chip." I know the beam is narrow otherwise they would not have 5-7 on a bumper and the range is similar to ultrasonic. I know the lexus and BMW and others have a longer range that helps in applying the break early. Wonder if you could get you hands on some of these components. Just a thought

[flybike]

here's another ultrasonic link, dont know if it helps..

http://micropilot.com/prod_accessories.htm

[stingrayOZ]

Im refering to kits like this one

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_108114/printArticle.html

While its designed for a radar gun it could be adapted.

It could provide information such as how fast you are approaching the ground etc or another plane (A2A refueling/precision flying etc).

Key advantage over ultra sonics is range. Works out to the km + range rather than a few feet.

Other areas such as mapping radar would be extremely useful.

[treehog]

but might be suitable in bigger crafts

Ralf

[jbeanelliott]

Has anyone looked at the SensComp 9000 Sonar Ranging Module for $103?
See the website at
http://www.senscomp.com/9000_oem_kit.pdf

Distance range is 1 to 18 feet.

Excerpt from the info blurb in Robot Magazine:

This new ranging module is a fast and easy solution for interfacing piezo ultrasonic transducers with external circuitry or a controller for ultrasonic sensing. The 9000 transducer operates on 5V DC and provides a TTL pulse-width output proportional to a distance to target. <snip>

SensComp provides the Series 9000 OEM kit for prototye and technology feasability studies, as well as an instructional tool for studies in ultransonic measurement and proximity experiments in high school and university labs.
9000 OEM kit is $103.

See also the 6500 series that has distance range from 6 inches to 35 feet.

The senscomp.com website has a nice application note on ultrasonic transducers too.
-John Elliott

[XJet]

We're working on an X-band doppler radar for use as part of a collision-avoidance system.

The designed operational range is 1.5 miles and it's small enough to fit inside a 160cc-powered airframe.

It's far more practical to use laser or ultrasonic for the kind of ranging you need for automated landings. Less weight, less power, higher accuracy at the very short distances involved.

[jbeanelliott]

Hello XJet,

Will you be selling this radar system in the future to others or is it just for personal use?

If you will be selling, what sort of ballpark price would it sell for in US dollars?
Also, how many months before you will have a product available?

Thanks. - John Elliott

We're working on an X-band doppler radar for use as part of a collision-avoidance system.

The designed operational range is 1.5 miles and it's small enough to fit inside a 160cc-powered airframe.

It's far more practical to use laser or ultrasonic for the kind of ranging you need for automated landings. Less weight, less power, higher accuracy at the very short distances involved.

[Tuner]

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/8sefrreauvip.html
Find something like this that can work for you. Ultrasonic has its problems that I bet systems like this could fix. I have not looked into it but Cmon guys ultrasonic has been beaten to death. All the UAV Radar systems Ive seen are for larg UAV's What about adapting a commercial of the shelf compenent similar to this.
Scott

[alexcmag]

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/8sefrreauvip.html
Find something like this that can work for you. Ultrasonic has its problems that I bet systems like this could fix. I have not looked into it but Cmon guys ultrasonic has been beaten to death. All the UAV Radar systems Ive seen are for larg UAV's What about adapting a commercial of the shelf compenent similar to this.
Scott

Unless there is anything I don't know, parking sensors are sonars... The main difference is they transducers were designed for outdoor use so they are sealed.

If they were radar they would not need to be mounted in a bumper hole, they could be mounted inside it.

The system is a set of ultrasonic transducer, a control board and a buzzer and/or display for warning then objects are too near.

I don't think they are a good choice for UAVs because the system is not so light, the range is usually 1.5m and they are harder to interface. How about this range sensor: http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=28015 ?

Of course it is for small UAVs, for larger one 3m range is useless, so a radar or laser is better.

There is also a Polaroid ultrasonic range sensor module with more powerful transducers and 11m range.