The 53rd International Paris Air Show, happening June 17th-23rd, 2019, brings together all the players in the global aerospace industry. Rajant Corporation, the exclusive provider of Kinetic Mesh wireless networks will be there showcasing how its patented technology can provide secure, high-performance, low-latency connectivity for a wide range of autonomous applications in today’s marketplace and futurecasting what its industrial wireless networking can mean to aerospace.
Rajant has an engineering, support and manufacturing facility in Morehead, Kentucky and works closely with neighboring Morehead State University in the development of robust, mobile communication systems for drones, small satellites, and other equipment. Due in part to this collaboration, Rajant will be among fellow members of the Kentucky Aerospace Industry Consortium (KAIC) and Kentucky’s State Cabinet for Economic Development exhibiting the state’s #1 export – aerospace.
KAIC’s Executive Director D. Stewart Ditto II says, “Kentucky is a leader in aerospace and defense exports due to the advanced and innovative capabilities of our businesses, like Rajant. At the Paris Air Show, we look forward to increasing the awareness of the Kentucky’s growth opportunities to ensure our companies have the tools needed for success. The aerospace and defense industries are key to the Commonwealth becoming a center for engineering and manufacturing excellence in the United States.”
Rajant will have on hand two autonomous drones in their booth located in Hall 3, B94 (Commonwealth of Kentucky) of the International Paris Air Show. One is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with Rajant’s BreadCrumb® Drone Module. The other is Ghost Robotics’ Ghost Vision™ 60, a mid-sized foldable teleoperated and autonomous all-terrain Quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicle (QUGV) for industrial inspection and perimeter security. It can cover 7.8 miles on a single charge or the approximate equivalent of 3.5 hours of continuous walking operation while carrying up to 25 lbs. Ghost Robotics and Rajant have collaborated on many projects, their latest being for DARPA.
For the last few years, Rajant has been opening up commercial opportunities for drone manufacturers. Their Kinetic Mesh wireless network, powered by InstaMesh®, equips unmanned systems with wireless mobile broadband to provide instant, uninterrupted connectivity for continuous operation in the air, on land and at sea.
According to Don Gilbreath, Rajant’s Vice President of Systems, “Autonomous applications require constant connectivity to remain operational. If coverage drops, even momentarily, these unmanned systems shut down. Mission-critical, industrial operations employing autonomy have zero tolerance for interruptions and are seeking the reliability only Rajant can offer them.”
Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh networking capability brought them to the attention of Ghost Robotics as a strategic partner for deploying small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAV’s) with their ground-based robot. Specific to DARPA, each robotic system (in air and on land) acts completely independent to explore and locate assets. The sUAV’s are able to fly into vertical stops and other hard to navigate voids, while the Vision60 QUGV’s can transverse rugged terrain akin to a dog’s four-legged capability.
James Laney, Head of Autonomy and Applications at Ghost Robotics, shares, “We will be demonstrating with Rajant our Vision60 to show Paris Air Show attendees the important role our robot plays in the perimeter security of airstrips, where air drones may not be allowed. Our robot autonomously navigates along the fence line of runways in search of intrusions and can work in conjunction with sUAV’s for more in-depth situational awareness. As we look to the future of aerospace, our versatile, ruggedized QUGV’s maintain advantages over robots with wheels and tracks, making them a right fit for the unstructured terrain of planets and asteroids.”