WIRELESS LAN FOR OPERATION OF HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING PAYLOAD ON A HIGH ALTITUDE SOLAR-POWERED UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

Abstract

Two separate imaging payloads were successfully operated using a wireless line-of-sight telemetry system that was developed as part of a recently completed UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) imaging campaign over the largest coffee plantation in the USA. The objective was to demonstrate the performance of “off-the-shelf” wireless technology in an effort to reduce the cost of line-of-sight telemetry for imaging payloads on UAVs. Pre-deployment tests using a conventional twin-engine piloted aircraft at a flight height of 10k ft demonstrated successful broadband connectivity between a rapidly moving (ca. 280 km hr^(-1)) airborne WLAN (wireless local area network) and a fixed ground station WLAN. This paper details the performance of the wireless telemetry system on a slow-flying (<50 km hr^(-1)) solar-powered UAV at a flight height of 6.4 km.