“Hand-Built” Air-Ground Integrated Patrol System Debuts as a New “Made in Chengdu Hi-tech Zone” Product

A white medium-sized bus with various detection devices “growing” from its roof and drones plus a sophisticated control center “hidden” inside does not carry cargo or passengers. It can travel freely on city roads and venture deep into mountains and forests...

This distinctive air-ground team is the latest “hand-built” technological product from the Electromagnetic Space Frontier Research Center of Tianfu Jiangxi Laboratory (hereinafter “the Electromagnetic Space Center”) - a mobile air-ground integrated low-altitude electromagnetic patrol system.

The low-altitude economy is an important direction for cultivating and developing new quality productive forces. However, as drones are increasingly used in logistics delivery, emergency rescue, agricultural plant protection and urban governance, the development and utilization of low-altitude resources also face practical difficulties: “hard to control,” “high risk” and “too risky to use.” Industry observers generally believe that low-altitude safety is a prerequisite for the growth of the low-altitude economy, and that effectively controlling non-cooperative drones is a key link in building a strong safety defense.

Frontier Technologies Take to the Road

Building a Mobile Air-Ground Integrated Prevention and Control Platform

The mobile air-ground integrated low-altitude electromagnetic patrol system is a signature mobile low-altitude safety and security product independently developed by the Electromagnetic Space Center. It is a specialized technical system for law-enforcement agencies to address unauthorized drone flights and locate drone operators for evidence collection. It places greater emphasis on enforcement functions such as controlling civilian drones, tracing operators and collecting evidence, while also offering good mobility, simple operation and rapid response.

It looks no different from an ordinary medium-sized bus, but its details conceal sophisticated capabilities. Its roof carries highly integrated, high-sensitivity radar, electronic intelligence, electro-optical, jamming and spoofing equipment, while three drone operator-location drones are concealed below. When the side cabin door opens, a smart control display comes into view, showing live data and on-site images. It gives a complete view of the status of aerial and ground targets ahead.

Interface of the Electromagnetic Patrol and Security System

Although this technological achievement was “hand-built,” it is backed by a year of research and development by the team. The team has made successive breakthroughs ranging from the detection of non-cooperative low-altitude targets and multi-source heterogeneous data-fusion perception to early warning of low-altitude security threats, intelligent protection and response, and wide-area search, tracking and evidence collection of drone operators through air-ground collaboration.

“This is not simply a ‘vehicle plus drones.’ From multidimensional sensing of targets, real-time data processing and target recognition to coordinated air-ground response, the entire chain was built line by line in code and interface by interface through hardware integration. The vehicle itself also underwent customized modification,” said Liu Huanyu, overall project lead at the Electromagnetic Space Center.

Its core competitiveness is reflected in three levels of innovation. At the architecture level, air-ground coordination and vehicle-system integration combine wide-area ground sensing with flexible aerial response, overcoming the coverage limits of fixed facilities. At the algorithm level, radar, electro-optical and electronic-intelligence data are fused to drive multimodal cross-identification and improve the recognition rate for “low, slow and small” targets. At the methodology level, progressive drone-operator localization and multimodal collaborative evidence collection achieve high-precision tracing under low signal-to-noise ratios, creating a complete closed loop from discovery and localization to evidence collection.

“Fixed monitoring stations used to have limited coverage, while manual inspections were inefficient and slow to respond. This system gives electromagnetic monitoring mobile deployment capabilities: it can be driven wherever it is needed. As a signature mobile low-altitude safety and security product, it is using the innovation of ‘Made in Chengdu Hi-tech Zone’ to provide solid technical support for the safe development of the low-altitude economy,” said Shao Huaizong, deputy director of the Electromagnetic Space Center.

As an important strategic sci-tech innovation platform in Chengdu Hi-tech Zone’s layout for future industries, Tianfu Jiangxi Laboratory has in recent years focused on frontier tracks such as the low-altitude economy and electromagnetic space. It continues to connect the innovation chain from “basic research” to “key technology breakthroughs” to “technology commercialization,” and continuously launches hard-core science and technology products that can be deployed and put to practical use.

According to reports, the mobile air-ground integrated low-altitude electromagnetic patrol system remains in the pilot-scale maturation stage. It is planned to become a deployable and scalable practical product in 2027. In the future, it will provide intelligent, efficient and agile security capabilities in three scenarios: operational support for the low-altitude economy, low-altitude security for major events and three-dimensional protection of key sites. Building on this product, the Electromagnetic Space Center has successfully incubated Tianfu Chuangwei (Chengdu) Technology Co., Ltd. The laboratory outputs cutting-edge original technologies through basic research, while the company’s market-oriented operations drive commercialization. The company is currently working with relevant departments to demonstrate applications in typical scenarios, conducting pilot trials in multiple areas across Sichuan and creating a replicable model for building low-altitude safety and security capabilities.