# Real-Time Drone Detection and Tracking With Visible, Thermal and Acoustic Sensors

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.07396 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.07396/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Jul 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [FRED: The Florence RGB-Event Drone Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05163/) (2025)
- [Evidential Detection and Tracking Collaboration: New Problem, Benchmark and Algorithm for Robust Anti-UAV System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.15767/) (2023)
- [Neuromorphic Drone Detection: an Event-RGB Multimodal Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.16099/) (2024)
- [Securing the Skies: A Comprehensive Survey on Anti-UAV Methods, Benchmarking, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11967/) (2025)
- [EV-Flying: an Event-based Dataset for In-The-Wild Recognition of Flying Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04048/) (2025)
- [Drone Detection and Tracking in Real-Time by Fusion of Different Sensing Modalities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.01927/) (2022)
- [Improving Small Drone Detection Through Multi-Scale Processing and Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19347/) (2025)
- [DrIFT: Autonomous Drone Dataset with Integrated Real and Synthetic Data, Flexible Views, and Transformed Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04789/) (2024)
- [Vision-Based Anti Unmanned Aerial Technology: Opportunities and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.10006/) (2025)
- [LRDDv2: Enhanced Long-Range Drone Detection Dataset with Range Information and Comprehensive Real-World Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03331/) (2025)
- [CFVNet: An End-to-End Cancelable Finger Vein Network for Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14774/) (2024)
- [TF-Net: Deep Learning Empowered Tiny Feature Network for Night-time UAV Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.16317/) (2022)
- [Synthetic Data for Object Classification in Industrial Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04790/) (2022)
- [Advance and Refinement: The Evolution of UAV Detection and Classification Technologies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.05985/) (2024)
- [A Tri-Modal Dataset and a Baseline System for Tracking Unmanned Aerial Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18344/) (2025)
- [GAANet: Ghost Auto Anchor Network for Detecting Varying Size Drones in Dark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.03425/) (2023)
- [Detection and Tracking of MAVs Using a Rosette Scanning Pattern LiDAR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.08555/) (2024)
- [Multi-Sensor Fusion for UAV Classification Based on Feature Maps of Image and Radar Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16089/) (2024)
- [WAVE-DETR Multi-Modal Visible and Acoustic Real-Life Drone Detector](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.09859/) (2025)
- [CageDroneRF: A Large-Scale RF Benchmark and Toolkit for Drone Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.03302/) (2026)
- [A Camera-Cooperative ISAC Framework for Multimodal Non-Cooperative UAVs Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22090/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper explores the process of designing an automatic multi-sensor drone detection system. Besides the common video and audio sensors, the system also includes a thermal infrared camera, which is shown to be a feasible solution to the drone detection task. Even with slightly lower resolution, the performance is just as good as a camera in visible range. The detector performance as a function of the sensor-to-target distance is also investigated. In addition, using sensor fusion, the system is made more robust than the individual sensors, helping to reduce false detections. To counteract the lack of public datasets, a novel video dataset containing 650 annotated infrared and visible videos of drones, birds, airplanes and helicopters is also presented (https://github.com/DroneDetectionThesis/Drone-detection-dataset). The database is complemented with an audio dataset of the classes drones, helicopters and background noise.