Dynamic Radar Networks of UAVs: A Tutorial Overview and Tracking Performance Comparison with Terrestrial Radar Networks

In the coming years, low aerial space will be crowded with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) providing various services. In this context, an emerging problem is to detect and track unauthorized or malicious mini/microUAVs. In contrast to current solutions mainly based on fixed terrestrial radars, this tutorial puts forth the idea of a dynamic radar network (DRN) composed of UAVs able to smartly adapt their formation and navigation strategy to best track malicious UAVs in real time with high accuracy and in a distributed fashion. To this end, the main methods for target detection and tracking are described, and an optimized navigation scheme according to an information-seeking approach is developed. Further, some examples of simulation results and future directions of work are presented, highlighting the advantages of dynamic and reconfigurable networks over static ones.