Helicopter Detection with Seismic Wave Sensors: A Preliminary Experimental Performance Assessment

To investigate the feasibility and performance of seismic wave sensors for detecting low-altitude targets, the study designed real-world experiments with R44 helicopter. During the experiments, seismic waves and ground truth data were collected by sensors and RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) module, respectively. Time-frequency analysis results indicated that the performance of sensors, which was primarily affected by the flight altitude and range of targets. Moreover, further analysis confirmed that the seismic waves were chiefly sourced from the main rotor of the helicopter. The experimental results validate the feasibility of detecting helicopters with seismic wave sensors as theoretically expected.