Drone & UGV Common Control System Joins Wave Relay Ecosystem

By Mike Ball / 22 Jan 2021
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Tomahawk-Robotics-Common-Control-System

Tomahawk Robotics has joined the Wave Relay Ecosystem, an industry alliance of sensor and unmanned system companies that all utilize Persistent Systems’ Wave Relay mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) radio technologies. The company will make its Kinesis Android-based common control system for UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and UGVs (unmanned ground vehicles) available for Persistent’s MPU5 Android-based MANET radio and Rugged Display and Controller (RDC).

The Kinesis app can be loaded directly onto the MPU5 radio, and the RDC provides the system with an intuitive touchscreen interface as well as joysticks and gamepad buttons, in a formfactor the size of a commercial smartphone. For applications that require fine manipulation movements, such as operating the arm of a bomb disposal robot, the MPU5 and RDC can be integrated with the Tomahawk Robotics Mimic spatial controller.

Persistent-Systems-RDC

Brian Mcdonald, Field Operations Director at Persistent Systems, commented: “Basically, this provides a ‘universal controller’ for unmanned systems that resides on the MPU5 and is accessed with the RDC, both of which the dismounted warfighter would already be carrying. So, you eliminate the weight and cost of extra hardware, and you bring Tomahawk’s all-encompassing Kinesis capability to everyone on the tactical team, not just the UxV operator.”

“We look forward to collaborating with Tomahawk Robotics because, together, we are bringing the warfighter incredible capabilities in a small, lightweight package, making it easier on the user and more affordable for the customer.”

Matt Summer, CTO at Tomahawk Robotics, said: “With the intuitive, easy-to-use Kinesis, you can operate any unmanned system on the land, in the air or on the water. You don’t need specialized controllers or training for each individual system.”

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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