Unmanned Ground Vehicle Non-line-of-sight Operations Using Relaying Radios

Tactical mobile robots used in military and law enforcement operations normally require a robust, long range, and non-line-of-sight communications link to the remote control station. High frequency digital communications, which overcome problems encountered by tethered links and analog radios, are subject to line-ofsight (LOS) limitations. This is often impossible to maintain in urban environments. The proposed solution is to develop a system that will allow the mobile robot to carry multiple relay radios that are automatically deployed when and where needed in order to maintain this communications link. This process is completely transparent to the operator and is entirely handled by the ad-hoc network formed by the relay radios. In this paper, we present a radio relay deployment system that is plugand-playable, and can be attached to many unmanned vehicles requiring long-range and non-LOS operational capability.