Analyze Cost-Efficient System for Small UAS Tracking Using Agent-Based Modeling

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for recreational use, which are low-cost and easy-to-use, have begun to gain popularity recently. Flying those UAS in public areas, however, increases threats in terms of safety of people. To prevent people from such threats, we consider a design, modeling, and evaluation of a cost-efficient sensor system in order to detect and track UAS. In this research, we focus on discovering best configurations of deploying different types of sensors in a designated area, which provides reasonable detection rates and lowest costs as well. We set a condition that crowded areas should be covered more than other areas. Two types of sensors are considered to be deployed in the designated area to detect small UAS. Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) helps us analyze such configurations depending on the types and the number of radars in terms of cost-efficiency. The result of ABM simulation shows a list of candidate configurations that can be referred for the real deployment. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.