Iridium Satellite Communications and Autonomous Systems
Autonomous systems help machines perform and communicate predetermined tasks and make decisions without the need for human interaction.
These systems can be integrated with satellite communications enabling drones, IoT devices or mobile assets to carry out missions or tasks in remote and inhospitable environments. Doing so can reduce risks to personnel, expedite data gathering and analyses, and deliver actionable information.
Autonomous systems can include uncrewed surface vessels (USV) gathering data at sea, unattended sensors monitoring environmental changes, driverless cars navigating city streets, and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAs) conducting surveillance or delivering packages.
Reliable Comms Required
Despite not requiring real-time human control, the success of any deployed autonomous asset relies on having reliable and secure communications.
This is necessary for monitoring anomalies, providing new commands, taking remote control, requesting status and machine health information, and the transmission of gathered mission data.
When venturing beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), autonomous assets benefit most from a weather-resilient satellite communications service that doesn’t limit their geographic deployment.
SATCOM networks like Iridium® fulfill the requirements of autonomous systems and serves as a reliable primary communications solution while also providing a cost-effective backup option for cellular service if networks are compromised or an asset ventures beyond coverage.
Built-to-Spec or Off-the-Shelf
Iridium and its partners have developed connectivity solutions for autonomous systems that scale in size, weight, power and bandwidth based on the needs of the assets and their missions.
Supported by the Iridium’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, exclusively providing weather-resilient, truly global connectivity, autonomous systems can remain connected everywhere, including inhospitable environments. Iridium and Iridium Connected® partner solutions can be integrated directly into a system or integrated as a low-profile add-on, reducing time to deployment.
