Echodyne adds small, affordable radar to counter-UAS technology
Fresh off its Game of Drones win as part of Dedrone’s counter-UAS team, Washington-based Echodyne played an instrumental role in the competition by using its miniaturized version of the phased-array radar technology employed by the military.
Echodyne’s beam-steering radar not only detects small UAS, but also has applications for drone detect-and-avoid systems and can provide high-resolution, 3-D situational awareness data for autonomous vehicles.
“Our focus is on a new type of radar,” said Eben Frankenberg, Echodyne founder and CEO. “The gold standard of radar for the last 30 to 40 years has been phased-array radars. Unfortunately, they’re incredibly expensive and so they’ve only been available to the military for higher-end applications. They start at a few hundred thousand dollars and go quickly into the million-dollar range.”