Localization of Electromagnetic Emitters by Drone Swarms and Time-Difference-Of-Arrival Techniques

Search and Rescue and Signals Intelligence missions are constantly evolving. The “OODA” loop-Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act-is a fundamental concept in military strategy. The faster this cycle is executed, the greater the probability of success both in strategic and tactical challenges. Within this framework, this paper explores the integration of drone swarms with helicopters to detect and localize electromagnetic emitters. In the military field, the concept is aimed at establishing electromagnetic (EM) superiority and protecting against ground-based emitters, specifically surface-to-air missile tracking radars, utilizing emitter localization for strategic and tactical benefits. At the same time, the approach is also of interest for civilian search and rescue missions. The main advantage of the proposed concept consists in exploiting a distributed reconfigurable geometry of the receivers, which can be controlled within a Manned-Unmanned Teaming framework. The proposed paper introduces the approach describing the simulation environment and presenting the first numerical results. Results demonstrate that the ability to detect the emitter mostly depends on the formation geometry of the swarm elements and on their spatial distribution with respect to the emitter itself.