“ Autonomy is the future ,” he said . “ And radar is the absolutely essential sensor you need in the array .”
The only thing stopping the deployment of this technology is a lack of guidance from the federal government , which has yet to write the rules that will govern self-guiding aircraft .
But this summer , Frankenberg said he was optimistic that will change relatively soon .
Companies are putting pressure on NASA to finalize the rules so they can “ start making some money ,” he said . The agency has responded . “ It feels very serious now , which is good ,” Frankenberg said . “ It ’ s sort of a redoubling of efforts , which is great to see .”
Ground pounding
While the industry waits for the rule-writers to finish , Echodyne is moving ahead on some down-to-earth projects .
Close Range 3D Radar EchoGuard CR is a lower-power 3D radar that achieves high detection and tracking accuracy in dense semi-urban , urban , and other close-range environments .
One of them involved creating sort of a radar-in-a-box – a fully functioning lightweight radar deployment kit that includes everything you need to run the radar in a backpack . The goal , Frankenberg said , is for “ special operations users or law enforcement users to take a radar out , set it up and have it looking for drones or people in areas where they ’ re not supposed to be .”
In conjunction with this , the company beefed up the radomes on the units , because the last thing a user wants after a 15-mile hike through the desert in the dark is to drop the radar and break it .
Too much power can be detrimental to radar performance in dense environments with lots of signal clutter and reflection . EchoGuard CR delivers market-leading performance in tight spaces .
OCTOBER | NOVEMBER 2021 ISSUE NO . 23 13