GCS Handover with UAV Navigation flight control system
UAV Navigation Handover Capabilities
Handover refers to the act of transferring the control of a UAV from one control station to another one. This is an interesting maneuver to perform when an operation is performed at very long distances and there is no satellite communication (satcoms) available.
Handover procedure enables an extended range for the UAV system by positioning multiple GCS along the mission path.
UAV Navigation system VECTOR autopilots and Visionair can perform a handover between different Ground Control Stations (GCSs).
UAV Navigation’s Flight Control System (UAV Navigation’s FCS) allows performing a GCS handover thanks to the datalink independency and agnosticism of the VECTOR range of autopilots, which allows communication with multiple GCS. Likewise, our ground control station software, Visionair, includes a “downlink only” mode where the operator receives down telemetry while waiting for coordination with current aircraft control and helps to prevent interferences and conflicting commands.
Please contact us to learn more details about this capability and help us to make it possible on your UAS project.
Figure 1. Handover between different GCSs.
NOTE: In Figure 1, “Hot leg” refers to the trajectory followed by the autopilot during the control handover between the two GCSs.
Figure 2. Flight performed before (on the left) and after (on the right) handover.
