Hackaday · Creativity & design

Open Source Acoustic Drone Detection

A new open-source project, VolAnti, has been developed to detect drones using sound.

The system is designed to counter the growing threat of small, hard-to-spot multi-rotor drones. It leverages the distinct sound produced by spinning propellers for detection, which is particularly useful for drones that do not emit radio frequencies.

VolAnti utilizes a four-microphone array connected to an ESP32-S3 microcontroller. This setup performs a 2048-point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) every 32 milliseconds to analyze sound frequencies.

The detection algorithm assigns a 'comb score' to identify different propeller blade rates, ranging from 70 Hz to 2000 Hz. Multiple detection algorithms run concurrently to address various scenarios.

One algorithm operates without an adaptive noise floor to ensure detection of stationary, hovering drones, which might otherwise be filtered out by adaptive noise reduction techniques.

The project's files are available on GitHub for public access and further development. This initiative follows previous acoustic detection projects, highlighting ongoing efforts in this field.

AI-samenvatting op basis van de bron.