Orion tethered drones carrying RF payload

Tethered Drones

The University of Notre Dame utilizes five Orion 2.2 tethered drones with ground control stations equipped with T-Planner software for programmed control of drone positioning and flight. These heavylift drones have capability to carry substantial payload including a camera, electronic payload and custom transmit and receive antennas. These specialized drones include Safe-T tethering stations with a power conductor and optical fiber link. The systems have provision for operation with shared LO for coherent operation.

  • Orion six-rotor drone with software defined radio payload attached to the bottom
  • Orion 2.2 six-rotor tethered drone in flight above a grassy field

Software Defined Radio Payloads

Our electronic payload consists of an Ettus SDR. Ettus SDRs have a dedicated FPGA that can be programmed using RF NoC tools. For example, FPGA images have been developed to implement modulating amplifier functionality with as little latency as possible.

Software defined radio sensing payload, housed in a grey box with a connecting chassis, for use with an Orion drone

Rugged Hi-Definition Camera Payload

In addition to the electronic payload, the group has a rugged, gyro-stabilized surveillance camera featuring 3-axis vision capability with 30x continuous optical zoom.