drones

A gritty team of engineering students from the University of Toronto has discovered a way to stop drones in their tracks/flight patterns, with sound waves.

The scientific breakthrough from Prandtl Dynamics, a startup named after a German aerospace pioneer, earned it a second-place prize of $270,000 in an anti-Drone Technology competition in southern Alberta that pitted them against behemoths like Boeing Corp. [The winner among 15 entries was a laser weapon developed by AIM Defence, a small Australian company.]

Prandtl’s drone navigation system has taken an unconventional path: A shoe-string budget forced them to think outside the box and come up with a solution that avoided the steep costs often associated with conventional anti-drone weapons.

The enterprising team of Anna Poletaeva, Parth Mahendru, Asad Ishaq and Michael Acquaviva started in a living room instead of a garage and bootstrapped their fledgling operation in classic startup fashion. They invested about $17,000 – Mahendru racked up nearly $9,000 in credit card debt to fund the project — and are now seeking office space, investors and clients in a bid to pursue business in the defense industry.

The global anti-drone market is expected to swell to $10.6 billion in 2030 from $2.45 billion in 2024 as the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into detection systems magnifies accuracy and efficiency in identifying rogue drones through the analysis of flight patterns and behaviors in real-time.

What is more, the feel-good story of Prandtl represents more than just a modern-day David vs. Goliath fable. It signals a significant shift in counter-drone technologies.

A sound-based solution is not only a less-costly approach but a non-destructive alternative to traditional counter-drones, which have historically relied on radio-frequency jamming, GPS spoofing, laser systems and drone-catching nets. Prandtl’s approach is not just novel but could prove to be especially useful in sensitive areas such as airports and cities, where flying debris and falling drones pose risks.

The Canadian Army has expressed interest in using Prandtl’s technology, which is evolving. The team of students are tinkering with ways to amplify sound waves through magnets and lenses. They’re also experimenting with how their tech stacks up against counter measures like foam, which could be added to drones to block sound waves.

Prandtl’s success story offers a positive storyline in an industry increasingly roiled by U.S. national security concerns over drones. On Friday, Chinese technology company DJI, the world’s largest drone maker, sued the Defense Department for wrongly adding the drone maker to a Pentagon list of companies designated as a “Chinese military company.”

DJI said it is “neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military.”