Hybrid Artificial-Intelligence-Based System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Detection, Localization, and Tracking Using Software-Defined Radio and Computer Vision Techniques

The proliferation of drones in civilian environments has raised growing concerns about their misuse, highlighting the need to develop efficient detection systems to protect public and private spaces. This article presents a hybrid approach for UAV detection that combines two artificial-intelligence-based methods to improve system accuracy. The first method uses a software-defined radio (SDR) to analyze the radio spectrum, employing autoencoders to detect drone control signals and identify the presence of these devices. The second method is a computer vision module consisting of fixed cameras and a PTZ camera, which uses the YOLOv10 object detection algorithm to identify UAVs in real time from video sequences. Additionally, this module integrates a localization and tracking algorithm, allowing the tracking of the intruding UAV’s position. Experimental results demonstrate high detection accuracy, a significant reduction in false positives for both methods, and remarkable effectiveness in UAV localization and tracking with the PTZ camera. These findings position the proposed system as a promising solution for security applications.