Wireless networking is improving on tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a result of a strategic partnership of companies with key technologies. Radio developer Persistent Systems has announced a five-year partnership with UAV supplier MartinUAV, in which MartinUAV will incorporate Persistent Systems’ Wave Relay mobile ad hoc network (MANET) radio technology into its small vertical-take-off-and-land (VTOL) UAVs.
“Persistent is proud to have been selected out of the many commercially available datalink solutions,” said Louis Sutherland, the company’s vice president of business development. “This agreement cements Persistent’s line of Wave Relay MANET products as the exclusive communications solution for MartinUAV’s unmanned products.”
The MartinUAV V-BAT VTOL system provides a small footprint with the flexibility of working with modular radio units to quickly switch radio bands as needed. (Courtesy of MartinUAV)
The MartinUAV systems are designed to seamlessly connect to any Wave-Relay-enabled UAVs, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), cameras, and sensors that are part of a Wave Relay Ecosystem. Users of the Wave Relay MANET radios can interface with a V-BAT UAV as well as other unmanned systems on the network. “The military requires a smaller footprint for takeoff and landing, while also needing larger payloads and longer range,” noted Phil Jones, COO of MartinUAV. “Using the V-BAT VTOL with the MPU5 and the Wave Relay MANET will enable us to meet all of these requirements.”
Using the Persistent Embedded Module, operators can rapidly switch among a variety of RF modules, to provide radio coverage at the L-, S-, C-, and 2-GHz broadcast-auxiliary-services (BAS) bands (2,025 to 2,110 MHz) for flexibility. “Persistent’s vision is to deliver the network to the tactical operators,” said Sutherland. “As MartinUAV incorporates Wave Relay MANET technology into the V-BAT, dismounted users gain an airborne network relay, while simultaneously increasing the V-BAT’s overall range and network performance.”
