System and method for detecting drones

A method of detecting a drone in proximity to a facility to be protected, comprising:

• receiving, by a plurality of base stations distributed over a geographic area that includes the facility to be protected, reflection data resulting from ultra-wideband (UWB) radio signals emitted by the plurality of base stations, the UWB radio signals emitted by each of the plurality of base stations defining an individual grid sphere, and an overall combination of the individual grid spheres defined by each of the plurality of base stations defining a drone detection UWB radio coverage area, the reflection data being generated when the UWB radio signals reflect from a flying object within the drone detection UWB radio coverage area;
• receiving, by a server connected to the internet, the reflection data received by the plurality of base stations;
• processing, by the server, the reflection data to identify whether the flying object is a drone in proximity to the facility to be protected, and, when the flying object is identified to be a drone, the processing by the server is configured to process the reflection data over a period of time to identify trajectory metrics for the identified drone, the trajectory metrics are configured to predict a path of the identified drone and determine if the identified drone constitutes a threat to the facility to be protected within the geographic area based on the predicted path of the identified drone;
• and
• processing, by the server, an alert to a predefined recipient when the identified drone is determined to constitute a threat to the facility to be protected.

A drone detection system, comprising:

• a plurality of base stations, wherein each of the plurality of base stations is distributed over a geographic area that includes a facility to be protected, and each of the plurality of base stations is configured to emit ultra-wideband (UWB) radio signals that define an individual UWB grid sphere, and an overall combination of the individual UWB grid spheres defined by each of the plurality of base stations defines a drone detection UWB radio coverage area for the drone detection system, and wherein the UWB radio signals emitted by each of the plurality of base stations distributed over the geographic area are monitored for reflection data, the reflection data being generated when the UWB radio signals reflect from a flying object within the drone detection UWB radio coverage area;
• a router in communication with the plurality of base stations;
• a server in communication with the router, the server is configured to process the reflection data from the flying object to identify whether the flying object is a drone that constitutes a threat to the facility to be protected, the processing of the reflection data to identify whether the flying object is a drone includes analyzing a mass size of the flying object, and, when the flying object is identified to be a drone, the processing of the reflection data to determine whether the identified drone constitutes a threat to the facility to be protected includes processing the reflection data over a period of time to identify trajectory metrics for the identified drone, the trajectory metrics are configured to predict a path of the identified drone and determine if the identified drone constitutes a threat to the facility to be protected based in part on the predicted path of the identified drone;
• and
• a data center connected to a network, the data center is configured to receive and store processed reflection data that has been processed by the server,
• wherein an alert is processed by the server when the identified drone is determined to constitute a threat to the facility to be protected.