Posted by Courtney E. Howard

MALVERN, Pa., 19 July 2011. Kairos Autonomi, designer and producer of systems for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), has selected multi-frequency wireless systems from Rajant Corp., for its work on a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) contract as part of the Navy Moving Land Target (MLT) program.

Kairos Autonomi provides the Pronto4 system, a robotic appliqué kit that enables automobiles to drive themselves by following a pre-defined GPS path or via remote operation. The Navy will use the Pronto4 on pickup trucks to be used as unmanned moving targets, upon which Navy pilots will fire during training exercises. The vehicles will be used nationwide as part of the Navy’s fleet training requirements, which provides Naval aviators the opportunity to engage upon realistic moving land targets, says a spokesperson.

Rajant will deliver 60 BreadCrumb LX3 wireless transmitter-receivers, which will monitor and send control commands to the vehicles and transmit video from the vehicles to the control stations. The network of 18 ground control and relay stations will provide communications across the coverage area where the MLT vehicles will operate.

“Portable and fixed BreadCrumb nodes are widely used in military and mining applications today, where ruggedness, motion, and flexibility are paramount,” says Rajant co-founder and CEO Robert Schena. “BreadCrumbs using Rajant’s InstaMesh technology are ideal for this type of application, as the nodes communicate with other BreadCrumb nodes to provide dynamic, on-the-fly frequency changes to adapt to physical surroundings or network availability.”

“Rajant radios have proven their fidelity and performance on military training ranges and in other applications,” says Troy Takach, president and CEO of Kairos Autonomi. “We are pleased to partner with Rajant in providing robust data links as part of the Moving Land Targets program.”

The Rajant BreadCrumb LX3 is a rugged, multi-radio wireless transmitter-receiver that forms a mesh network when used in conjunction with other BreadCrumb devices. This portable wireless mesh node contains two radios and supports secure connectivity with any Ethernet or 802.11a/b/g client equipment, ensuring compatibility with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices, such as laptops, PDAs, IP cameras, sensors, VoIP phones, and other IP gear.

Using Rajant’s advanced InstaMesh protocol, BreadCrumbs enable continuous and instantaneous routing of wireless and wired connections. This dynamic channel-hopping capability allows for total network mobility–Kinetic Meshing–as well as robust fault tolerance, high throughput, and low latency.

Specific military applications of Rajant’s kinetic mesh technology include convoy communications, perimeter security, surveillance, UAV applications, man-portable and PAN, instant high-bandwidth net, video monitoring, sensor aggregation, and vehicle-communications on the move.