Triad RF Systems has provided its High Performance Radios (THPRs) to a UK-based robotics company that is developing prototypes of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed to perform as an autonomous air taxi. In order to perform such a service safely, the vehicle will require a highly reliable communication link, and Triad delivered several dual MIMO integrated radio systems to help meet the long-distance and data throughput requirements for the prototypes.
Steve Barthelmes, co-founder of Triad, commented: “The challenge for our engineering team was to maintain a link budget with very good margins and to support the need for high data rates over an extended distance. While amplification of the transmit and receive signal of the COTS radio was achievable, the client wanted to avoid the complexity of bolting on external amplifiers, power supplies, control circuitry and cables to get the job done. The project took a big leap when with the customer decided to use our THPRs, eliminating costly, time consuming integration and many days or weeks of building, troubleshooting, testing, retesting and debugging.”
“The confluence of autonomous vehicle technologies such as drones and self-driving cars is creating a new and exciting mode of transport. We are thrilled to be able to lend our data link communications expertise and state-of-the-art radio solutions to next-generation transportation systems.”
Many leading firms such as Toyota and Uber are currently investigating air taxi technology, with the first models expected to be operational within a few years.
