Use Case - Safety and Communication

Autonomous Drones for Safety and Communication

A small autonomous drone lets a unit or a response team see a building, a street or a tunnel before anyone walks into it. On VOXL hardware the aircraft navigates by visual inertial odometry rather than GPS, so it works indoors and in cluttered urban terrain, and it streams encrypted video back over a cellular network or a point-to-point radio.

What Teams Use It For

• Equipping soldiers with clear, extensive surveillance video in urban environments, with multiple aircraft controlled over a portable LTE network.
• Detecting threats and hazards early with lightweight aircraft that can fly all day on rotating batteries.
• Meeting government procurement rules, including NDAA '20 Section 848 and the American Security Drone Act, with drone parts designed and assembled in the USA.

DARPA OFFSET

ModalAI supported the U.S. Army in the DARPA OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics program, where 99 VOXL m500 development drones and 9 Seeker micro-development drones flew in the final field experiment at Fort Campbell.

"If a unit is coming up into a densely populated urban area, they could use a swarm of unmanned aircraft systems to go and do a reconnaissance. Instead of having to send Soldiers in there and spend manpower and other resources, you can send your drones in there to do that reconnaissance and validate threats." John Watson, chief, Training Division, Fort Campbell Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security.

What to Fly Today

See the Blue UAS overview for designations, or contact us to talk through a program.