Latvia to Spain Used to Validate Cross-country Drone Piloting Through Mobile Network

Latvian telecom company LMT has joined hands with European drone framework Comp4Drones to push the limits and validate the feasibility of long-distance UAS control. 

The test will see LMT attempt to pilot a drone in Latvia from a Spanish terminal 3,500 kilometers away. The demo will be slightly different from the usual BVLOS affair by virtue of its reliance upon a mobile network as its primary communication channel. Cross-country control and piloting will be transmitted by the mobile network along the way, while network coverage forecasting and remote route validation will utilize Airborne RF. 

The demo is designed to test remote drone flights in areas where network coverage has not been previously measured with on-site indexes, instead using fully remote network forecasts. If successful, the system can prove the utility of cellular networks for networked UAV systems, allowing much easier deployment without the usual need to deploy on-the-ground personnel within immediate transmission range. 

“Before the Comp4Drones demonstration in Spain, LMT has done extensive network measurements and compared the actual coverage data with the forecasted, validating the reliability and availability of the network in very-low level airspace (up to 120m). What we see from the findings is that the existing network configuration is sufficient for today's needs, but the work on network capabilities must be continued as the number of drones and BVLOS (beyond the visual line of sight) flights will increase,” said Gints Jakovels, innovation lead at LMT.

The test flight will be conducted during the final demonstration of the Comp4Drones project on October 19. 

FMI: www.comp4drones.eu, www.innovations.lmt.lv