SARDrone
SARDrone is available through Neurosight Robotics as either a fully managed monitoring service (wet hire) or as a system purchase for client-operated deployment. Whether you need a turnkey solution with our team handling operations and data delivery, or you want to integrate SARDrone into your own monitoring program, we provide flexible options to match your operational and technical requirements.
What SARDrone Does
SARDrone is an exclusive, next-generation radar technology developed by DARES. It delivers near real-time situational awareness for critical assets and environments, providing the level of detail and responsiveness required for operational safety and efficiency across multiple contexts.
This revolutionary system supports a broad range of radar applications, from 3D daily millimeter-accurate displacement analysis and topographic mapping to volumetric change estimation, surface change detection, pond and water-body delineation, and environmental or structural monitoring across complex or limited-access areas, offering unmatched precision and flexibility even under the most challenging conditions.
Key Capabilities
-
Guaranteed coverage anywhere: Tailor-made flight plans ensure precise sensitivity for any area of interest, even in hard-to-reach or restricted locations.
-
Unmatched revisiting frequency: Capture several images per day to monitor fast-evolving processes with exceptional temporal resolution.
-
24/7 operation and under adverse meteorological conditions: Independent of daylight and resilient to dust, humidity, low visibility, etc. ensuring consistent and reliable data.
-
Fully remote monitoring: No on-site instrumentation is required, enabling safe, efficient, and cost-effective oversight.
-
High spatial resolution and accuracy: Achieves 0.20 m/pixel resolution with millimetric precision in displacement monitoring, approximately 1 m vertical accuracy in DEM estimation, and around 1 m planimetric accuracy in pond and water-body delineation, capturing subtle surface and structural variations with exceptional detail.
-
Rapid deployment for critical inspections: Ready for operation within just 15 min, making it ideal for urgent or high-risk scenarios.
-
Actionable insights: Provides daily updates, multi-layer trend analysis, and tailored alerts on any detected surface or environmental change to support proactive management.
SARDrone bridges the gap between satellite and ground-based systems, removing the geometric constraints of current SAR sensors and access limitations, while providing high revisit frequency, high resolution, and exceptional measurement accuracy.
Technical Specifications
The flight platform used in the SARDrone system corresponds to a state-of-the-art multirotor drone specifically selected for its outstanding performance under demanding environmental and meteorological conditions, such as challenging winds or high-altitude scenarios.
It is a four-motor platform that offers up to 25 minutes of autonomy with the radar integrated, ensuring stable performance even under suboptimal weather such as light rain or winds up to 36 km/h (gusts up to 54 km/h). The system features a high-precision RTK GNSS positioning module that, together with its exceptionally stable flight capability, makes it an ideal platform for generating repeatable and consistent SAR images.
The integrated radar operates at 17.2 GHz and has been entirely designed and manufactured by DARES to achieve maximum synergy between the drone platform and the sensor itself. It is a compact, lightweight, and low-power radar capable of acquiring ultra-high-resolution SAR images (~0.20 m/pixel).
The drone can cover areas between 1 and 2 km² per flight and operate safely in dusty conditions or light rain, whereas its integrated navigation and control software allows precise and repeatable flight paths to be programmed for systematic repeat-pass acquisitions.
Overall, SARDrone represents the convergence of advanced UAV engineering and radar processing and aplications expertise, offering a portable, autonomous, and high-precision monitoring system for environments where conventional satellite or ground-based sensors cannot operate effectively.
SARDrone Solutions
Neurosight Robotics provides SARDrone as both a monitoring service and a deployable radar system for client-owned operations. Developed by DARES, SARDrone delivers high-resolution airborne radar intelligence for near real-time situational awareness across large, remote, or high-risk environments.
Whether delivered as a fully managed monitoring program or integrated into a client’s own operational workflow, SARDrone enables precise, repeatable, and actionable surface and structural intelligence — without the access, geometry, or revisit limitations of traditional satellite or ground-based systems.
Applications & Capabilities
-
High-Resolution Radar Imaging – Detailed surface reflectivity for terrain characterisation, object detection, and site analysis
-
Surface Change Detection – Monitor activity evolution, ground disturbance, and structural modification over time
-
Pond & Water-Body Delineation – Support water management, tailings monitoring, and environmental compliance
-
Topographic & Volumetric Analysis – Frequent terrain updates and stockpile or landform volume estimation
-
3D Ground Displacement Monitoring – Millimetric-precision movement detection with daily updates, independent of site access constraints
SARDrone combines advanced radar sensing with flexible airborne deployment, making it ideal for mining operations, tailings storage facilities, critical infrastructure, and environmentally sensitive areas where consistent, high-accuracy monitoring is essential for safety and decision-making.
High-Resolution Radar Imagery
SARDrone, delivered by Neurosight Robotics in partnership with DARES, provides ultra-high-resolution airborne radar imagery for advanced surface intelligence. Using DARES’ proprietary processing algorithms, raw radar data is transformed into reflectivity maps with ground resolution down to 20 cm — far exceeding conventional SAR systems.
This level of detail enables detection of subtle surface features such as vehicle tracks, infrastructure changes, terrain disturbance, and water-body boundaries. These high-definition radar images form the foundation for powerful analytics including change detection, object classification, and structural monitoring.
Ideal for critical infrastructure, industrial operations, mining sites, and security-sensitive areas, SARDrone converts radar backscatter into clear, data-rich imagery that enhances situational awareness beyond traditional remote sensing methods.
Change Detection
SARDrone’s ultra-high-resolution radar imagery enables precise and reliable surface change detection. With ground resolution down to 20 cm, the system captures fine detail needed to identify subtle activity such as new vehicle tracks, terrain disturbance, or infrastructure modification.
Powered by DARES’ advanced change-detection algorithms, SARDrone analyses imagery over time to detect and map surface changes with spatial accuracy of up to 1 metre. The result is more than simple change monitoring — it delivers a clear, functional picture of ground activity, supporting high-level operational awareness and informed decision-making.
Ponds and Water Bodies Delineation
SARDrone uses advanced radar sensing to accurately detect and map ponds and water bodies, even in challenging environments. Water surfaces naturally appear as low-reflectivity areas in radar imagery, allowing precise delineation of boundaries, contours, and dimensions with accuracies close to 1 metre.
Because radar operates independently of daylight and is unaffected by cloud, fog, dust, or low visibility, SARDrone provides consistent and reliable monitoring in all weather conditions. Powered by DARES’ proprietary algorithms, the system analyses radar intensity to track water-body changes over time — supporting water balance assessments, operational compliance, and early risk detection related to storage capacity and hydraulic safety
Topographic Model Updates
SARDrone delivers high-resolution radar-based topographic mapping using advanced interferometric techniques developed by DARES. The system generates Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) with around 1-metre vertical and spatial accuracy, setting a new standard for airborne radar terrain monitoring.
Because radar operates independently of lighting and is unaffected by dust, cloud, or poor visibility, SARDrone provides frequent, reliable elevation updates in all conditions. This continuous stream of high-precision terrain data allows early detection of subtle surface and volumetric changes that traditional methods often miss.
For industries such as mining, infrastructure, energy, and environmental management, SARDrone supports earthworks verification, terrain evolution tracking, volumetric assessments, and safer, data-driven operational planning.
Volumetric Change Estimation
SARDrone transforms volumetric monitoring by delivering fast, high-frequency terrain and material change analysis without the delays and limitations of traditional survey methods. Unlike ground crews, crewed aircraft, or extended LiDAR campaigns, SARDrone provides on-demand topographic updates in all weather conditions.
Using advanced interferometric radar processing developed by DARES, the system compares successive elevation models to automatically calculate volumetric changes such as excavation, stockpile growth, material movement, or surface reshaping. Results are delivered as clear, quantitative measurements supported by high-resolution radar imagery for easy interpretation and validation.
This enables proactive management of earthworks, mining operations, infrastructure projects, and environmental sites — supporting faster, data-driven decisions while improving safety and operational efficiency.
3D Displacement Monitoring with Daily Updates
SARDrone delivers high-resolution 3D displacement monitoring with daily updates, enabling continuous tracking of ground and structural movement. Using repeated airborne radar measurements from multiple flight paths, the system captures displacement from different viewing angles to build a complete picture of motion.
These measurements are processed into East–West, North–South, and vertical movement components, which are then combined to generate a full 3D displacement vector. Results are visualised through intuitive movement maps and vectors, making subtle or complex deformation patterns easy to interpret.
Time-series analysis allows detection of both gradual trends and rapid changes, while integrated alert thresholds highlight areas where movement exceeds safe limits. This provides a powerful, responsive solution for monitoring slope stability, tailings storage facilities, infrastructure, and other critical assets.