Kaspersky Antidrone: What it’s for and how it works

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Today, hundreds of civil drone models are available for sale — from fairly simple toys to impressive aircraft built to carry substantial weight. Most of them are used for entertainment or aerial video. But, as is the case with almost all technologies, sooner or later someone puts them to malicious use. That creates demand for systems to get rid of unwelcome aerial presence. Demand, in turn, breeds supply, and our enthusiasts have developed a solution called Kaspersky Antidrone.

How can one be wronged by a drone?

To begin with, any civil UAV is, above all, a remotely controlled camera. Naturally, the world has already seen reports of drones used by burglars to identify potential targets and research defense systems; by headline hunters to get footage of film sets for then-unreleased episodes of Game of Thrones; and by some strange individuals to peep into the private lives of St. Louis residents.

Drones can also carry loads and, therefore, serve as smuggling vehicles. True, their weight-lifting ability remains wanting so far, but you don’t need much of that as far as certain substances go. In fact, according to The Washington Times, Mexican drug gangs use drones extensively to smuggle drugs across the U.S. border. Potentially, drones can also be used to steal expensive materials (such as platinum or diamonds) from guarded facilities.

And finally, a drone is a piece of metal that may suddenly crash into something. I am not even referring to intentional ramming attacks. There are many reports of drone accidents that have led to rather unwelcome consequences.

How to combat drones

Of course, we were not the first to come up with an idea for a drone repellent. Other companies have proposed a variety of UAV response methods. Some of them offer detection systems that only warn the user about approaching drones, but others try to combat this aerial threat more actively.

Some have suggested the use of nets; others would train predatory birds to serve as interceptors. Some systems use a fake GPS signal to disorient the device. But most antidrone solutions represent variations on an electromagnetic cannon designed to bring the drone down, which we believe is fundamentally wrong — not to mention, not always legal — just like attempts to hack communications between the apparatus and its remote control unit. We prefer the most noninvasive method of all: targeted suppression of communications between the remote control unit and the drone.

As soon as the control signal is lost, a normal UAV will immediately initiate the landing procedure or try to return to the launch site. Some models are programmed to hover or fly to a different location in such instances, but these are rather an exception to the rule.

But landing a drone is only half the battle. At the heart of our solution lies a system for automatic detection and classification of aerial objects.

The principle behind our method

As you might guess, we do not manufacture any jamming or detection hardware. We are a software company. Therefore, our experts have written software that uses data from various sources to detect drone approach, aim jamming antennas at it, and force it to land. The solution is adapted to the customer’s actual needs and configuration by our system integration partners.

Primary detection

To understand that a UAV is approaching the protected area, the primary detection module is used. A detection module is virtually any device able to scan the airspace over your perimeter — a camera, lidar, radar, or an acoustic sensor. In fact, even IPTV cameras can feed data to our system (provided they cover enough sky).

Each method has pros and cons. Our demo setup uses a lidar — a device that detects objects and measures distance using monochromatic light emission (in this case, a laser). True, it can detect an airborne object at a shorter distance than, say, radar. But it can also tell a drone from a bird from much farther away. It also is not subject to specialized licensing (in some countries it is next to impossible to obtain approval for the use of radar in a populated area; radar emits radio signals that may conflict with other equipment).
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