FURI | Spring 2025

Millimeter Wave Fiducial Markers for UAV Operation in GPS-Denied Environment

Advancements in drone technology, such as localization and landing, are needed because drones rely heavily on GPS for localization and navigation. Drones don’t have a clear-cut solution to combat GPS-denied environments, resulting in limitations due to weather conditions. Advancements from current state-of-the-art technology are needed to address the constraints and be used as valuable solutions to environments without GPS capability. This research intends to incorporate multifaceted reflectors and deduce low-level logic to convey information to a drone. A drone should be able to interpret the logic received by the mmWave radar and perform various outputs. To conduct this research, mmWave radar will be placed on a drone, and multifaceted reflectors will be arranged in patterns to mimic a QR code or an Aruco Marker. Is obtaining low-level logic with reflectors in a QR code possible?