Towards Robust Lidar-based 3D Detection and Tracking of UAVs

In this paper, we study the robustness of lidar-based 3D detection & tracking of UAVs. We investigate the effective detection ranges of different UAVs based on their construction materials and the effective range & 3D detection performance of a specific UAV at different atmospheric visibility conditions. Further, we examine to what extent lidar-based systems can track a drone's trajectories via real-world experiments and point cloud data processing. Using a COTS lidar-based system (Livox Mid-40), we confirm that we can track UAVs in a fine-grained manner at up to 80m distance under various environmental conditions (i.e., morning, afternoon, and night).