Expeditionary Cyber and Unmanned Autonomous Systems (ECUAS) Lab
About ECUAS
The ECUAS lab is home to the Kostas Research Institute’s (KRI) Assured Communications and Electromagnetic Dominance (ACED) division, located in Elliot Hall on the Innovation Campus at Burlington Massachusetts(ICBM) at 145 South Bedford St, Burlington, MA 01803.
The Lab is available for use as a research or test facility by any interested party. As a Core Facility of Northeastern University the lab maintains dedicated support staff and operates on a fee-for-use basis for both facilities and equipment. Additionally, lab staff is available for consulting services for collaborative R&D or projects that require effort beyond standard facility or equipment support.
The ECUAS Lab enables discovery and innovation across all drone related technologies areas including flight control systems, autonomy, ML/AI, PNT systems (position, navigation & timing), sensors/payloads, cyber systems, and RF/electromagnetic systems. The lab consists of a massive 1.8M cubic foot netted flight “cage” (150’x200’x60’) interconnected to an indoor 50’x50’x22’ Anechoic Chamber with >110dB of RF isolation (DC to 40GHz+).
The Lab provides a research and test facility that operates outside of the constraints of the FAA (Part 107) and FCC (licensed and unlicensed frequency bands) and that is integrated with state of the art tools such as precision optical tracking, SDR-based multi-band radio frequency transmit and receive, multi-constellation indoor GNSS simulation, cyber vulnerability analysis, antenna characterization, high power EMP, and machine learning for autonomy and sensing.
For more information regarding lab use, pricing or consulting services please contact the Lab Director, James Vedral, at J.Vedral [at] northeastern.edu .
Lab Facilities
RF Anechoic Chamber
50’x50’x22’ with >110dB of RF isolation (DC to 40GHz+)
Netted Outdoor UAS
Test Range
150’x200’x60’, 1.8 million cubic foot netted flight volume
Indoor/Outdoor Flight
Corridor
Enables experimentation from GPS-enabled to GPS-denied/emulated conditions
Lab Equipment
- Numerous makes/models of group 1 UAVs – DJI, Yuneec, Skydio, Autel, etc.
- High Resolution Optical Tracking System for Indoor Drone Flights integrated with Anechoic Chamber
- Software Defined Radios integrated with Anechoic Chamber
- 2-Axis Antenna Positioner integrated with Anechoic Chamber
- Ifen Titan GNSS Simulator integrated with Anechoic Chamber
- EMP Simulator integrated with Anechoic Chamber
- Test and Measurement Equipment – Scopes, Analyzers, Antennas, etc.
- 3D Printing for Rapid Prototyping
- Outdoor Wind Field Generator (Laminar Flow, 0-45MPH)
Book the Lab
Access the lab booking system here.
Current lab availability can be found on the calendars below:
Reservations are generally required to be Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm, University holidays excluded. Depending on requested resources reservations are also subject to staff availability.