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Carter
What exactly can sesnors see? I'm about to play a rigger with drones but I'm not sure about what information sensors can pick up.

I know they can cover things like low-light, thermal, ultrasound, radar etc, but can they for instance detect whats on the other side of a wall in a room? After all if you look at the flux ratings the range on the sensors is on the Km scale.

Can I roll my drone up to the door of a room and detect movement, heat, radar refections on the other side?

Or you could use your drone as a point man to determine incoming hostiles.

After reading the stories in Renraku Arcology: Shutdown it would appear that sensors can do this.

Also if a drone is targeting a person (sig 6) who is wearing a Ruthenium Polymer Cloak then can the drone use radar to negate any target penalties?
Capt. Dave
QUOTE
Can I roll my drone up to the door of a room and detect movement, heat, radar refections on the other side?

Yes, provided the target(s) are within flux range
QUOTE

Or you could use your drone as a point man to determine incoming hostiles.

Same answer as above
QUOTE
Also if a drone is targeting a person (sig 6) who is wearing a Ruthenium Polymer Cloak then can the drone use radar to negate any target penalties?

M&M states that vehicle sensors reduce the TN modifiers provided by ruthenium polymers by half (round down)

Hope that helps!
grendel
QUOTE
Can I roll my drone up to the door of a room and detect movement, heat, radar refections on the other side?


No. Solid objects will block radar and ultrasound transmissions, even millimetric wave radar. Thermal scans as well have difficulty accurately reflecting a heat source through a solid object. There are some window glasses and plastics which are thermally transparent and will allow a sensor such as FLIR to see through, but a security conscious corporation would probably avoid such things. Also, any insulation in between walls is going to make acoustic sensor gathering difficult.

Drone sensors, for the most part, are considered line of sight. The flux ratings, when expressed in kilometers, are a measure of how far, given no intervening terrain, that a target could reasonably be detected.
Camouflage
QUOTE (grendel @ Mar 26 2004, 08:33 PM)
There are some window glasses and plastics which are thermally transparent and will allow a sensor such as FLIR to see through, but a security conscious corporation would probably avoid such things.

Especially, as this would be special materials not commonly used anyway. Normal windows are opaque to thermographics.


As for the flux-ranges:
As Grendel said, those sensors mostly require some form of LOS. Mostly flux is important in case of sensors, if you use it as a homing signal.
Capt. Dave
QUOTE
Thermal scans as well have difficulty accurately reflecting a heat source through a solid object.


EDIT - Yeah, he's right. I just checked Raytheon's site. They can't.
grendel
smile.gif
Kagetenshi
There are bonuses to the Sensor test if the object being located is within LOS, so I'm assuming there's a certain amount they can see beyond LOS...

~J
Capt. Dave
I agree, but on what spectrum would the drone be seing it?
Corporate Raider
Kagetenshi said:
QUOTE
There are bonuses to the Sensor test if the object being located is within LOS, so I'm assuming there's a certain amount they can see beyond LOS...


I concur. As far as the type of sensor data, it would most likely be ground penetrating radar. But since it is the 2060s, it could be something more exotic, such as the magnetic field signature of people (electric impulses of a beating heart) or machines (ie. from electronics or spark plug systems).
Beast of Revolutions
Don't forget over the horizon radar. Non-LOS could mean that, rather than seeing through objects.
Kagetenshi
But it's a bonus for being in LOS, leading me to believe that the test assumes non-LOS.

~J
Zeel De Mort
Over-the-horizon radar is just for ships really, but I'd think something similar to that must be incorporated into sensors that can see through/round walls. Something that relfects off things, or bends round walls and so on, as well as sensors that use various wavelengths that see right through certain barriers.

Who knows what they'll have come up with by the 2060s!
mfb
millimeter-wave radar can pass through objects, depending on the object's composition. if it's metal, you're SOL; other materials are transparent or translucent to mmw radar. as a general rule, i'd add 1/2 the obstacle's barrier rating to the target's signature rating.
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