By leveraging the maneuverability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology and the modularity of a Software Defined Radio (SDR), together they can be used to measure and estimate the direction of signals emitted by cell phones and locate a missing person. To validate the proposed system, one SDR on the ground was used to emulate the signals emitted by a cell phone while another SDR mounted on the UAV collected directional signal strength data, UAV orientation, and UAV position data. The position and orientation of the UAV was varied over a repeatable pre-programmed flight path to search for the location of the transmitter emitting the signal. After the UAV returned from its flight path, the data collected by the airborne SDR was analyzed to compute the location of the emitted signal.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Beeman, Isaac L.
• Elice, Sarah Jessica
• Spincken, Griffen D.
• MacCormac, Michael W.

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-032520-140608

Advisor

• Brown, Donald R.
• Amissah, Matthew

Year

• 2020

Date created

• 2020-03-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Electrical & Computer Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright