New technology lets you control drones from a great distance: how does it work?

Scientists have developed a new SUCOM mobile network system that allows you to control unmanned aerial vehicles over long distances. This became known by the TechXplore post.

Modern drones can fly beyond the operator’s line of sight thanks to cameras and remote controls, but the latter has a limited range. Mobile networks are an alternative, but they cannot guarantee reliable protection and connection stability because sometimes congestions can occur and there may not be coverage everywhere. German scientists from the Telecommunication Institute. Fraunhofer-Heinrich-Hertz worked with Wingcopter to develop a new system designed to address these shortcomings.

One of the main problems with drones in mobile networks is malfunctions due to insufficient coverage. As the researchers explain, at high altitudes, UAVs can “see” multiple base stations at the same time and lose signal by constantly switching between them. Existing communication protocols for exchanging data between drones and controllers are not sufficiently resistant to transmission rate jumps, so some data packets arrive late, while others are completely lost.

German experts have developed new communication protocols that are resistant to such jumps. Thanks to them, the drone stays in communication even with sudden changes in data transfer rate, my position, altitude, direction, speed, etc. I inform the operator about the issues. Continuous transmission of such information is critical to safe flight and aerial photography. According to the developers, during the experiments it turned out that their network is much more stable than LTE.

The SUCOM mobile network module can be installed on existing drones. Also, such modified machines are already in practice in Malawi, an eastern African country, to provide medicine and life-saving supplies to people during the rainy season. Under the manual control of operators, UAVs take off from four airports and travel up to 40 km.

In order for the pilot not to get off the road, he is given a flight plan with waypoints to pass along the route. To do this, the data is sent from the institute in Berlin to a server located in Cape Town (South Africa), and then to the SUCOM module and control panel. The connection is so fast that packets travel from Malawi to Germany in just 170 milliseconds.

The drones are also equipped with a satellite communication system that activates in the event of a DSL link failure. In addition, drones can be controlled via smart phone and VPN connection if needed. The creators demonstrated the reliability of the network for drones that fly over one of the most “dead” areas in Germany with a radius of 14 kilometers and never lose contact with the UAV.

In July, scientists learned for the first time how to control a UAV using a laser. With this technology, the operator can only fly the drone within sight, but the signal cannot be captured.