Inside Unmanned Systems

APR-MAY 2017

Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.

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54 unmanned systems inside April/May 2017 INFRASTRUCTURE COMMUNICATIONS Photos courtesy of Inmarsat and AnsuR Technologies Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) satellites will be used to support unmanned systems. Inmarsat was created to serve the maritime community. without the need for cellular. The data/video run from the drone through the existing links to the drone's controller and then through ei- ther an encoder or a portable terminal. The setup enables operators to quickly send infor- mation from remote locations or disaster zones where other connections are not available. In fact, AT&T;, which has been tapped to build the FirstNet Public Safety Broadband Network to support first responders, has chosen Inmarsat to be part of its team. "Technology has evolved immensely over the last couple of years," said Holdsworth, which makes it possible to "pass much higher resolu- tion video and stills imagery through very small bandwidths from the UAV." Inmarsat is working on how it can best as- sist during emergencies. One of its technol- ogy partners, a Norwegian firm called AnsuR Technologies, has developed UAS software for specific projects with the United Nations, a system that was used during a sequence of volcanic eruptions in Indonesia. "We put a system in Indonesia to allow them to have 20 regions supported by medium sized drones—the kind of drone that can f ly for about an hour and a half. And so they were putting these up with a complete system allow- ing them to geotag all of the information that was sent to an operational center," Holdsworth told Inside Unmanned Systems. "We even f lew one of the drones into one of the volcanoes, I think to have kind of an investigation." " SATELLITE LITERALLY HAS 1,000 TIMES MORE SPECTRUM AVAILABLE TO IT, AND IT'S AVAILABLE ON A GLOBAL BASIS, NATURALLY, BECAUSE IT'S IN SPACE." Nathan Myhrvold, co-founder, Intellectual Ventures, speaking to Geekwire

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