Persistent Systems to Provide Communications for U.S. Army UGV

By Mike Ball / 16 Nov 2017
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Persistent Systems, a developer of Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) technologies, has announced that the company is part of Endeavor Robotics‘ winning team for the US Army’s MTRS Inc II Award (Man-Transportable Robotic System Increment II). This $100 Million contract award has an option for an additional $58 million worth of deliverables to provide a fleet of up to 1,200 mid-sized unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to the US Army. Persistent Systems’ MPU5 is Endeavor’s MANET radio of choice to provide secure and long-range data communication for C2 (command and control), video, CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive), and other critical sensor data.

Endeavor Robotics chose Persistent Systems to provide its onboard communications because the MPU5 provides the performance and feature set critical to the UGV’s mission and the US Army’s success:

  • 100+ Mbps, 3×3 MIMO radio with up to 6 watts of transmit power to provide a long range and secure IP network in both LOS (line-of-sight) and NLOS (non-line-of-sight) environments
  • Modular frequency architecture that allows the operator change RF bands (L-, S-, and C-Band) as needed by simply swapping radio modules
  • Wave Relay MANET capability that maintains the UGV’s network connectivity in a dynamic multi-hop mobile ad hoc network: the capability Persistent is best known for

“We’re extremely proud of our partnership with Endeavor Robotics and congratulate them on this very important award” said Dr. Herbert Rubens, CEO of Persistent Systems. “The US Army has been a long-standing customer of Persistent Systems, and we appreciate the opportunity to deliver potentially 2,400 more MPU5 radios to support this UGV mission, the US warfighter, and the US Army.”

Persistent and Endeavor announced their partnership back in July of 2016 and have been working together since. Tom Frost, President of Endeavor Robotics commented, “Persistent builds a great radio and has been a great partner to Endeavor. We look forward to working together on this Army program.”

Posted by Mike Ball Mike Ball is our resident technical editor here at Unmanned Systems Technology. Combining his passion for teaching, advanced engineering and all things unmanned, Mike keeps a watchful eye over everything related to the unmanned technical sector. With over 10 years’ experience in the unmanned field and a degree in engineering, Mike’s been heading up our technical team here for the last 8 years. Connect & Contact