Army works to extend range of ground robot comms

Army effort seeks to increase the operational range of ground robots with help from flying communications relays.

The Army is experimenting with using small tactical unmanned aerial vehicles as communications nodes to extend the operational range of ground-based robots, reports Defense Tech.

Raven tactical UAVs are being used as flying communications relays for their earthbound cousins. Besides extending the communications range for ground robots, which is about 300 meters in line of sight, officials hope the tests will pass sensitive battlefield information between the robots and back up the chain of command via the Raven’s encrypted data link.