Malvern, Pennsylvania (USA), June 13, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
The 53rd International Paris Air Show, happening June 17th-23rd, 2019, brings together all the players in the global aerospace industry. Rajant Corporation, the exclusive provider of Kinetic Mesh wireless networks will be there showcasing how its patented technology can provide secure, high-performance, low-latency connectivity for a wide range of autonomous applications in today’s marketplace and futurecasting what its industrial wireless networking can mean to aerospace.
Rajant has an engineering, support and manufacturing facility in Morehead, Kentucky and works closely with neighboring Morehead State University in the development of robust, mobile communication systems for drones, small satellites, and other equipment. Due in part to this collaboration, Rajant will be among fellow members of the Kentucky Aerospace Industry Consortium (KAIC) and Kentucky’s State Cabinet for Economic Development exhibiting the state’s #1 export – aerospace.
KAIC’s Executive Director D. Stewart Ditto II says, "Kentucky is a leader in aerospace and defense exports due to the advanced and innovative capabilities of our businesses, like Rajant. At the Paris Air Show, we look forward to increasing the awareness of the Kentucky's growth opportunities to ensure our companies have the tools needed for success. The aerospace and defense industries are key to the Commonwealth becoming a center for engineering and manufacturing excellence in the United States.”
Rajant will have on hand two autonomous drones in their booth located in Hall 3, B94 (Commonwealth of Kentucky) of the International Paris Air Show. One is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with Rajant’s BreadCrumb® Drone Module. The other is Ghost Robotics’ Ghost Vision™ 60, a mid-sized foldable teleoperated and autonomous all-terrain Quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicle (QUGV) for industrial inspection and perimeter security. It can cover 7.8 miles on a single charge or the approximate equivalent of 3.5 hours of continuous walking operation while carrying up to 25 lbs. Ghost Robotics and Rajant have collaborated on many projects, their latest being for DARPA.
For the last few years, Rajant has been opening up commercial opportunities for drone manufacturers. Their Kinetic Mesh wireless network, powered by InstaMesh®, equips unmanned systems with wireless mobile broadband to provide instant, uninterrupted connectivity for continuous operation in the air, on land and at sea.
According to Don Gilbreath, Rajant’s Vice President of Systems, “Autonomous applications require constant connectivity to remain operational. If coverage drops, even momentarily, these unmanned systems shut down. Mission-critical, industrial operations employing autonomy have zero tolerance for interruptions and are seeking the reliability only Rajant can offer them.”
Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh networking capability brought them to the attention of Ghost Robotics as a strategic partner for deploying small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAV’s) with their ground-based robot. Specific to DARPA, each robotic system (in air and on land) acts completely independent to explore and locate assets. The sUAV’s are able to fly into vertical stops and other hard to navigate voids, while the Vision60 QUGV’s can transverse rugged terrain akin to a dog’s four-legged capability.
James Laney, Head of Autonomy and Applications at Ghost Robotics, shares, “We will be demonstrating with Rajant our Vision60 to show Paris Air Show attendees the important role our robot plays in the perimeter security of airstrips, where air drones may not be allowed. Our robot autonomously navigates along the fence line of runways in search of intrusions and can work in conjunction with sUAV’s for more in-depth situational awareness. As we look to the future of aerospace, our versatile, ruggedized QUGV’s maintain advantages over robots with wheels and tracks, making them a right fit for the unstructured terrain of planets and asteroids.”
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About Kentucky Aerospace Industry Consortium
The Kentucky Aerospace Industry Consortium (KAIC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, seeking to advance and promote Kentucky’s aerospace and defense industry by providing leadership and creating collaborative partnerships that will ensure the industry has the resources it needs to succeed. We are a growing community of manufacturers, entrepreneurs, engineers, students, pilots, veterans, policymakers, service providers, and anyone dedicated to establishing the aerospace and defense industry as the Commonwealth's KEY economic driver. Our primary goals are to advance the knowledge of Kentucky’s aerospace industry through the establishment of a strong brand; facilitate connections and partnerships with existing and future organizations; create a robust aerospace and defense supply chain; and maintain an environment that is conducive to the creation of a sustainable industry through education, workforce development and industry-led research and development. For more information visit our website at www.kyaerospace.org.
About Ghost Robotics
Ghost Robotics™ is revolutionizing legged robotics and the market for autonomous unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) used on unstructured terrain for industrial, mining and energy, defense and public safety applications. Our quadrupedal UGVs (Q-UGVs) are unstoppable.
Beyond all-terrain operation, a core design principle for our legged robots is reduced mechanical complexity with total software (SDK) control when compared to other legged and traditional wheeled and tracked UGVs on the market. By reducing complexity, we inherently increase durability, agility and battery life, and reduce the cost to build and deploy autonomous robots. Our modular design model allows ecosystem vendors to build solution specific Q-UGVs for virtually any use-case.
About Rajant Corporation
Rajant Corporation is the exclusive provider of private wireless networks powered by the patented Kinetic Mesh® network, BreadCrumb® wireless nodes, and InstaMesh® networking software. With Rajant, customers can rapidly deploy a highly adaptable and scalable network that leverages the power of real-time data to deliver on-demand, mission-critical business intelligence. A low-latency, high-throughput and secure solution for a variety of data, voice, video, and autonomous applications, Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh networks provide industrial customers with full mobility, allowing them to take their private network applications and data anywhere. With successful deployments in more than 50 countries for customers in military, mining, ports, rail, oil & gas, petrochemical plants, municipalities, and agriculture, Rajant is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania with additional facilities and offices in Arizona, Kentucky, and Alabama. For more information, visit www.rajant.com or follow Rajant on LinkedIn and Twitter.