Bionic System Solutions in collaboration with
the technology company Terma on drone defense
02 June 2022
The company from Odense, Bionic System Solutions and the technology company Terma have started a new collaboration that the in future will improve the possibility of monitoring and early warning of unwanted drone flying. The collaboration, and not least the solution, has aroused interest among several authorities and companies.
The forthcoming collaboration between Bionic System Solutions and Terma, in all its simplicity, involves combining Terma’s radar, T.react CIP Counter Drone system, with acoustic sensors from Bionic System Solutions. The purpose is to ensure a further optimized product that can be used for 360-degree surveillance and control of drones. The collaboration has aroused interest among several players in the public and private market, who, as an example, focus on the security of fixed installations of various kinds.
Bionic System Solutions developed an innovative acoustic sensor that can determine the direction and locate a sound source. The device emits an alarm if there is an overflight within a certain defined range. Together with the radar from Terma, for example, it will be possible to spot drones the size of a DJI Phantom 4, up to 10 kilometres away, with high precision at long and short distances.
It is new and groundbreaking state-of-the-art technology with many applications in both military contexts such as counter-terrorism, but also in safety surveillance of airspace, and other socially critical supply institutions.
This new technology has become more relevant than ever as an increasing problem with drone security is experienced. This is due to, not only, drones from foreign military powers, or others with malicious intentions but also hobby drones from ordinary citizens.
The development task in BSS
The development of Lizard360, as the sensor is called, has been a research and development project in collaboration with the Danish Defence, the Maersk Institute at the University of Southern Denmark, the Department of Biology and Bionic System Solutions. Bionic System Solutions has a patent on the technology used for the Lizard360. A technology that through sound detects and locates a specific sound source, the sound of a drone. This is the same technique that lizards use when determining the direction and location of a sound. Their ears are connected through a channel, so the sound that hits one ear also hits the other, which means that the lizards have a fantastic direction determination. This is used, among other things, when the lizard has to catch a prey animal.
The acoustic sensor, Lizard360, can, without problems, operate alone, and has 360-degree surveillance of airspace up to 125 meters in radius, which gives a safety zone of approx. 50,000 m2. But together with the radar, T.react CIP Counter Drone system, from Terma, it will be possible to achieve 360-degree surveillance of drones the size of the DJI Phantom 4 for up to 10 km, and a safety zone of 314 km2, which corresponds to an area the size of approx. 44,000 football fields.
It’s a technology with many applications in defense and counter-terrorism, as well as security surveillance of e.g. airspace over airports, prisons, or military bases. But also for surveillance of socially critical supplies such as electricity, gas, water, and heat supply as well as communication, where for various reasons you do not want overflights.
Bionic System Solutions was founded in 2017, as a research and development company, to commercialize research conducted at the Maersk Institute at the University of Southern Denmark, and the Department of Biology. Today, the company is partly owned by the University of Southern Denmark and private investors. With core competencies in advanced signal processing, sensor infrastructure, and artificial intelligence, there is a focus on activities in time series analysis and pattern recognition.