Small Non-Cooperative Collision Avoidance Systems Suited to Small Tactical Unmanned Systems

SARA’s Passive Acoustic Non-cooperative Aircraft Motion Analyzer, PANAMA, is a high-performance, low SWaP collision avoidance system. SARA has over 15 years of experience designing acoustic sense and avoid systems for UAS. Our hardware has been extensively flight tested on Group 1 and 2 UAS in relevant environments. These systems can detect intruding aircraft from sufficient ranges and provide suggested maneuvers to UAS pilots with adequate warning time. We have recently identified a novel set of algorithms which allow us to not only detect aircraft but also to track their position using our existing UAS mounted microphone array. The tracking capability provided allows for more advanced collision prediction and enables advanced definitions of ‘well clear.’ We plan to rapidly mature our new tracking algorithms, quickly bringing PANAMA to a high TRL in the Phase I and II SBIR programs. PANAMA is an all-weather system, which outperforms electro-optic solutions, and is superior to radar in size, weight, power and cost. PANAMA will enable Navy UAS operations, and strengthen the safety case for UAS operation in the national airspace system.