Micro Air Vehicle Technology for border surveillance

 Mesut Yavuz, Leader

The development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has for decades been a hot research topic. As the technology advances, UAVs become smaller and more sophisticated. Among the most desired capabilities of the UAVs are vision and autonomous decision making, which enable a UAV to be used in missions that could not be performed by manned aerial vehicles. Such a mission arises in the context of securing our borders against illegal entries. Earlier studies show that the southern (Mexican) border is the entry point of most illegal immigrants and smugglers. Building a physical wall along the entire border that spans about 2,000 miles is undesirable due to its high economical and political costs. Using UAVs to patrol the border, on the other hand, may enable the creation of a virtual wall that is much more economical and also has the flexibility of switching on and off at different times. We have focused on a 60-mile long segment of the border and investigated the feasibility of using the currently available UAVs in the patrol mission. The results from the study show that UAVs indeed provide a feasible solution to the problem.