The effect of gps jammer on drone flight

The advent of affordable high-end drones in recent years, coupled with easy-to-use mission planning tools, has created the perfect environment for drones to thrive. No longer the preserve of professional drone users, applications using drones have branched out into fields such as surveys, inspections, and volumetric analysis, with an almost revolutionary impact.

In the air, even higher. When something goes wrong, the consequences are always worse than they actually are. One of the biggest threats to drone safety is GPS jamming. At the very least, interruptions in satellite signals reduce positioning quality. In the most extreme cases, interference can result in a complete loss of signal tracking and positioning.

A significant source of interference for drones is often other components mounted on the drone. Confined spaces mean that antennas are often close to other electrical and electronic systems.

GPS receivers on drones are particularly vulnerable to external sources of interference, whether they are intentional or not. In the sky, signals from jammers can travel longer than on land.

In the case of drones inspecting large wind turbines, many countries are encouraging the construction of windmills next to roads, which increases the chance of interference from on-board GPS jammers. These devices, while not legal, are cheap and readily available on the Internet. For example, using GPS jammers, truck drivers can drive around without being detected by GPS trackers on their trucks, and car thieves can disable GPS anti-theft devices on stolen vehicles.

Although the transmit power is only about 10 mW, the power of the chirp jammer is enough to knock down GNSS signals within a radius of hundreds of meters of land. In the air, drones are more susceptible to jamming because the jamming signal has a wider range and is not obstructed by trees, buildings or other obstacles.