Study of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effect on surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

The contemporary deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for commercial purposes and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threat to mechatronic devices necessitates the study of EMP on surveillance UAVs. This research paper describes the effect of EMP interference on the structure, communication and cabling circuit of the UAV. This was achieved using the CST microwave studio with an induced plane wave referring to MIL-STD464 and applying the transmission line matric solver method. The cable field coupling for bi-directional, uni-directional radiation and uni-directional irradiation were carried out with a constant resistive load of 50 Ω and the induced coupling currents and voltages, current in space domain, TLM mesh is obtained indicating the susceptibility of the UAV under different conditions of EMP interference and the electromagnetic distribution in the UAV circuit layout. Experimentally, the UAV is setup with an EMP generator and its response was observed at 12 m, 10 m and 8 m from the radiation source with the corresponding field strengths.