MP-SET-315-26.pdf — page 10

A Novel Swarm Defense End-to-End System 
for Autonomous Drone Detection, Tracking, and Neutralization 
10 
STO-MP-SET-315-26 
 
 
1) Monitoring and Detection: After arming and take-off, the system effectively classified 
environmental noise as non-threatening, keeping the drone idle. 
2) Intrusion and Identification: As with the simulations, the system identified and classified drones as 
they entered the buffer zone. 
3) System Engagement: In this phase, our system behaved similarly as during the simulated 
experimentations with the only difference that real-world perturbations (noise) were identified as 
neutral entities (e.g., birds) to allow our AI agent to take them into account for collision avoidance.  
4) Capture Progression: In real-world operations, deploying the net was a virtual action conducted only 
in simulation. The success (or not) of the capture was therefore assessed in the simulated 
environment mirroring the actual situation. Upon capture, the behavior of the captured red drone was 
no longer mirrored in the real world. The simulated captured red drone was dragged by the 
simulated blue drone that captured it into the retrieval area. The real red drone however simply put 
itself out of the game by lowering its altitude below the buffer zone and remained ignored by the 
system until the end of the scenario. The real capturing blue drone moved towards the retrieval area, 
mimicking the fact of dragging the captured red drone and releasing it in that area. Its simulated 
counter-part was mirroring this behavior. 
These adaptations in the system allowed us to successfully test various scenarios, encompassing the 
detection, localization, classification, tracking, neutralization and safe retrieval of captured targets in matches 
of two defending drones against two intruders. 
6.0 CONTRIBUTION TO ADVANCEMENT OF SECURITY MEASURES 
Our research design successfully exhibits the ability to tackle escalating drone threats, as demonstrated by 
our theoretical and practical executions. Notably, our system is designed to address an equal number of 
threats to the defensive swarm drones. Although, we must emphasize that this system is, for the moment, 
validated for small swarms only. This was substantiated during our simulated experiments and real-flight 
trials, where five drones managed to track an equivalent number of enemy drones in simulations, achieving a 
secure interception of all infiltrating units. In real-flight operations, our small defensive swarm of two drones 
coped with two enemy drones, confirming our system’s adaptability and scalability under different 
conditions and its promising application to real-world scenarios for future versions. To be noted also that our 
system is agnostic of the hardware equipment it is using. The drone make and model, the sensors type or the 
neutralization payload type can all be easily replaced or changed by different ones. 
7.0 CONCLUSION 
Our designed system showcased the integration of ground and air segments, entailing a range of sensors and 
countermeasure capabilities. By employing ground radar and PTZ camera, the system enabled long-range 
detection, classification, and localization of potential threats. Simultaneously the air segment contained a 
fleet of autonomous counter-UAVs, each equipped with an Electro-Optic sensor and a net deployment 
mechanism for neutralization purposes.  
By synchronizing sensor data, facilitating communication among resources, and utilizing artificial 
intelligence, the counter-UAV system provided an end-to-end solution from detection to neutralization of 
intrusive drones. Priority was given to maintaining human oversight via a manned ground control station, 
thereby keeping the human operator in the loop for monitoring and a stop mechanism in case it was 
necessary for safety reasons. The stop mechanism consists of a “stop all” button that interrupts the 
commands during a mission from the AI agent to the drones. The stop button freezes the movement of all 
drones, defending or intruding, and gives back the control to the human pilots to manage the situation.