Tracking cellular phones with UAV's

Abstract

The use of cellular phones has become widespread. It is predicted that cellular phone use will soon become almost as high as normal land-line telephones. The ability to track these phones has obvious advantages for intelligence gathering. The problem with tracking these phones is that their use is intermittent and they are very low power emitters. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) could help in the detection of these signals. They would extend the capabilities of a ground unit. Once these signals have been detected, the best algorithm for tracking to the intermittent and noisy nature of the received signals. The extended Kalman filter is used because of the nonlinearities present in the system. The exploitation of cellular signals by using UAV's and the extended Kalman filter is an important framework for future use of UAV's in unconventional ways. This thesis explores the use of UAV's to exploit' cellular emissions and locate the caller. The time difference of arrival (TDOA) of emissions is the main method of tracking using the Kalman filter. Further research and directions of interest will be proposed.