Awesome Chat: Spotter Global

About this Episode

What happens when drones go somewhere they’re not supposed to go?

In this AwesomeChat, Sorg talks with Logan Harris, CEO of Spotter Global, about the technology being developed to detect drones, track their operators, protect critical infrastructure, and give security teams a better picture of what is happening across large areas.

Spotter Global began by shrinking ground-surveillance radar technology that once required large equipment, significant power, and multiple operators into compact systems designed to provide situational awareness in the field. Today, that technology has expanded into critical infrastructure, public safety, drone detection, and some surprisingly unexpected applications.

Logan demonstrates how radar, cameras, GPS tracking information, video analytics, and Remote ID can work together to help operators identify what is actually moving instead of simply generating another security-camera alert.

The conversation also explores a rapidly changing drone landscape: public-event incursions, Remote ID regulations, DJI’s changes to its geofencing system, DIY aircraft, fiber-optic drones that cannot be detected or jammed through conventional radio-frequency methods, and the growing challenge of defending against inexpensive drones without using dramatically more expensive countermeasures.

Learn more about Logan Harris and Spotter Global at www.spotterglobal.com.

Topics, News Stories & Technology Discussed

• How Spotter Global started with military radar technology
  Logan explains how the company grew out of a need for much smaller ground-surveillance radar systems. Instead of the roughly 100-pound systems that traditionally required several operators, Spotter Global developed compact radar technology for providing situational awareness to small teams operating in remote areas.

• A compact radar covering a surprisingly large area
  Logan demonstrates a radar unit with roughly a 600-meter range that uses about eight watts of power and can monitor approximately 40 acres. Radar provides the wide-area detection layer while cameras and additional analytics help determine what the radar actually found.

• SnapTrack brings live targets directly onto the map
  Spotter Global’s SnapTrack feature combines target location information with live camera imagery. Rather than forcing an operator to monitor a wall of camera feeds, a target can appear on a map with picture-in-picture video once a camera acquires it.

• Radar + cameras + video AI to reduce false alarms
  Sorg compares the technology to conventional security cameras that send an alert without making it clear whether the movement came from a person, vehicle, animal, or even a tree branch. Spotter combines radar tracking, GPS coordinates, metadata, cameras, and video analytics to add multiple levels of verification.

• Critical infrastructure and the Metcalf substation attack
  Logan discusses how the 2013 attack on the Metcalf electrical substation in California highlighted vulnerabilities around major infrastructure. That helped drive demand for security systems capable of monitoring activity well beyond a facility’s fence line.

• Drones over a Fourth of July event
  Logan describes assisting local law enforcement around a fireworks event where four drones flew around or over a stadium containing approximately 50,000 people. Police were able to intercept two of the operators.

• Remote ID: a “license plate” for drones
  Remote ID is compared to ADS-B on traditional aircraft. Compatible drones broadcast information including an identifier and location data, allowing detection systems to track the aircraft and, in some cases, identify the location of its operator.

• Spotter Global’s Remote ID sensor
  Logan demonstrates a compact sensor capable of monitoring a large surrounding area for Remote ID broadcasts and plotting drone tracks and operator locations on a map.

• The 250-gram threshold and smaller drones
  The conversation looks at how weight affects Remote ID requirements and why some very small consumer drones operate differently from larger aircraft.

• DIY drones, RC aircraft, and external Remote ID beacons
  Sorg connects the discussion to SAE Aero Design competitions and student-built aircraft. Logan demonstrates a small Remote ID transmitter that can be attached to a DIY aircraft that needs to comply with Remote ID requirements.

• DJI and the change from geofencing to warnings
  Logan discusses DJI’s change from firmware-enforced no-fly restrictions to warnings that alert operators when they are entering certain restricted areas without necessarily preventing the aircraft from flying there.

• Drone activity around major sporting events
  The conversation touches on drone pilots entering restricted areas around stadium events despite warnings, illustrating why detection and enforcement remain necessary even when consumer drones notify pilots of restrictions.

• Fiber-optic “FOG” drones
  Logan identifies fiber-optically guided drones as an important emerging challenge. Instead of communicating with an operator using radio signals, these drones remain physically connected by an extremely thin fiber-optic cable.

• Why fiber-optic drones are difficult to stop
  Because control and video travel through fiber rather than a wireless RF link, conventional RF detection and jamming techniques may not work. That increases the importance of radar and other methods of physically detecting the aircraft.

• Long-range attack drones and the economics of defense
  Logan contrasts smaller fiber-optic drones with much larger long-range fixed-wing attack drones and discusses the challenge of using extremely expensive defensive weapons against comparatively inexpensive aircraft.

• Fish farms need radar too
  One unexpected commercial application is protecting fish farms where millions of dollars of stock could be vulnerable to theft or sabotage. Radar can alert operators to someone approaching a restricted area.

• Avalanches, rockfalls, and polar bears
  Spotter’s radar technology has moved far beyond its original security mission. Logan mentions applications involving avalanche monitoring, rockfall monitoring, and even tracking polar bears.

• Entrepreneurship: do it for more than money
  Logan says entrepreneurship involves too much work and stress for money alone to be the motivation.

• The Three Rs: Record, Remind, Report
  Logan’s productivity philosophy centers on doing small things consistently: record what needs to happen, establish reminders, and make sure progress gets reported. His lesson is that accomplishing large goals depends on consistently handling the little things.