MachineTalker has completed flight tests of its intelligent mesh network, collecting wireless sensor data from on-board sensors, processing and passing results to Talkers on the ground.
The system is designed to share sensor information among nearby UAVs proving the feasibility of intelligent and autonomous UAV squadrons.
The successful flight testing of the rugged MachineTalker wireless sensor nodes is the first step in an on-going process of demonstrating the efficacy of low cost sensor networks in UAVs and in other aerospace applications. The information gathered by the on-board sensors can be relayed to the ground or to another UAV within radio range.
The small UAVs can be used for both commercial and military security applications; while Multiple UAVs acting in concert (known as swarming) can provide both redundancy and analysis of recorded sensor data. In the UAV flight tests, selection of parametric data for review was made from the ground station in real-time with results gathered, processed and conveyed from the on-board Talkers back to the ground for display and review.
The Company's Chief Scientist, Gerry Nadler, emphasized that its low cost, light weight and low power consumption enabled the MachineTalker wireless network to be placed in extremely small UAVs enabling pre-processing and on-board decision making for applications like environmental monitoring, pipeline surveillance and numerous other security applications.
