Precision Tracking of Birds and Drones using Fast Efficient 3D Lidar

We propose to build and demonstrate a system that will robustly detect and track non-cooperative small airborne objects, initially focusing on large flocks of small birds.  Detection is achieved using a rapidly-scanned 3D imaging lidar with single-photon sensitivity, which enables pinpoint geolocation and easily resolves flying objects against clutter such as buildings, ground vehicles, and trees.  The 3D lidar directly measures the 4D coordinates (position and time) of the flying objects, providing unambiguous inputs to a tracking algorithm.  The tracker develops and propagates the tracks of thousands of flying objects in real time.  This project builds from a Phase 1 SBIR study which demonstrated the promise of this approach through simulations.  The proposed effort will build a lidar optimized for the given challenge (bird tracking), and a processing system designed to report tracks in real time.  The demonstration system will scan a cube of edge length 100 m at a distance 400 m from the lidar at a rate of 10 Hz with angular resolution of approximately 150 microradians.  A processing system remote from the bird flock will calculate the tracks.  The proposed effort includes two field campaigns where large flocks are expected to be present.