SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve standards for safety-critical connectivity of drones flying Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). The drone communication market requires superior link reliability to BVLOS drone applications at an affordable price. The proposed technologies seek to control BVLOS operations enabling improved safety and increased trust in autonomous airspace systems from both regulatory authorities and society. Network-based solutions to improve airborne links require costly enhancements to the network and a large number of drone devices to be profitable. The team is focused on solving aerial command and control problems using the current mobile network; The technology seeks full integration with the 5G network and compatibility with subsequent network generations.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop and de-risk the connection reliability enhancement algorithms for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drones, enhancing connection reliability. The technological improvements allow use of any network generation (2G/3G/4G/5G), delivering connection reliability to 95% of the global population. The team has three enabling innovations: 1) voice channel communication redundancy which translates commands into audio signals transmitted over the voice channel, 2) an algorithm for handover (HO) optimization which minimizes ping-pong HO, radio link failures (RLF) and connection losses, and 3) safe route planning which allows drone operators to select the best route for reliable connectivity given the network circumstances.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will improve Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) services used in package delivery, aerial surveillance, and infrastructure inspections. The goal of the effort is to provide UAS services beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) and enable reliable communication links to remote ground control stations. Existing solutions for control of BVLOS drones are based on either satellite connections with expensive subscription fees or cellular-based products with limited network availability, frequent interruptions, and high interference. The team?s integrated software solution will enhance the connection reliability for BVLOS drones using the voice channel redundancy of the existing mobile network (2G/3G/4G/5G), identify and mitigate the circumstances of the link failure, and provide an accurate visualization of the network coverage for optimal route selection. The team?s ubiquitous, ultrareliable, and low-latency communication technology allows cellular-connected UAS service providers to reliably control their long-range UAS, and benefit from fewer mission abortions and reduced costs compared to satellite links. The flexibility of the software solution can serve every drone use case and can get more drone companies through the regulatory approval process faster, reducing the time to enter the market.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to develop a software-based solution that provides scalable, redundant, and guaranteed cellular network connection for BVLOS drones. The proprietary software solution is based on three enabling features voice channel redundancy, a connection selection algorithm and a network mapping tool. In this project, the research and development efforts will be dedicated to 1) the development of the scalable software-only version of the data-over-voice technology operating with commercial off-the-shelf communication hardware, 2) implementation of software solutions to make drone connectivity reliable end-to-end and dynamically adapt to the requirements of drone use cases; 3) development of the aerial network coverage visualization tool to provide the drone industry with valuable insights into connectivity in airspace, 4) firmware implementation of solutions for overcoming the connectivity failures and further enhancing the network reliability, and 5) development of an application programming interface (API) which manages connectivity dashboard. The successful completion of these activities will deliver the fully functional software-only solution for BVLOS drones with its safety and performance validated with ground/air measurements, thus confirming the commercial potential.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.