WAVENET RF Engineering and UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía Successfully Perform the First Flights of a UAV Using Radio Positioning Algorithms in GNSS-Denied Environments
● The KEPLER ADVANCE system, developed within the COINCIDENTE program of the Spanish Ministry of Defence, is consolidated as a robust alternative to the known GNSS systems.
Madrid, 10 Dec, 2024. – WAVENET RF Engineering, a renowned Spanish company dedicated to the design and development of radio frequency systems and specializing in unmanned vehicle systems, with the collaboration of UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía, a leading Spanish company in advanced guidance, navigation and control systems for unmanned aerial systems, are developing, under the COINCIDENTE 2022 program financed by the Ministry of Defence, an innovative positioning and navigation system, called KEPLER ADVANCE. It is totally autonomous and independent from those currently known. Increasingly, today's unmanned aircraft face challenging scenarios that threaten the robustness and accuracy of their navigation systems. The importance of developing alternative systems to those based on GNSS signals lies in the vulnerability of these systems to jamming and spoofing attacks, which can disable or interfere with satellite signals. Therefore, it is crucial to look for robust and accurate alternatives that do not rely exclusively on GNSS. The COINCIDENTE KEPLER ADVANCE project was born out of this need to develop an alternative positioning system, which is essential for a professional UAS system.
WAVENET RF Engineering has led the development of the KEPLER ADVANCE system. UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía has provided its wide experience in the UAS sector to carry out the integration and fusion of the information in its estimator, as well as the evaluation of the KEPLER ADVANCE system in real operations in different types of UAVs.
As part of the final phases of this program, both collaborating companies have carried out system validation flights in recent weeks with a UAV using the developed KEPLER ADVANCE system as the only positioning and navigation system. The results were completely successful. In the flights, the UAV used were a CLASS I, equipped with the VECTOR-600 flight control system together with its ground control station control software, Visionair from UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía, and integrating the KEPLER ADVANCE system from WAVENET RF Engineering for positioning and navigation. On the test day, different missions were carried out, including comparative flights in parallel of GPS with KEPLER ADVANCE, as well as flights with GPS denied using only KEPLER ADVANCE as the PNT system for approximately three hours. All of them were successful.
KEPLER ADVANCE is a system that enables precise navigation of an unmanned aircraft in the absence of GNSS with a focus on defense applications. It is a radio frequency system capable of converting incoming RPAS signals (interrogations) from the GCS to outgoing signals (responses) to the GCS.
These responses are processed at the ground station of the KEPLER ADVANCE system and determined with an accuracy similar to the accuracy provided by satellite systems:
1. The distance of the RPAS from the ground station.
2. The angle of the RPAS relative to the ground station and to North.
3. The height above ground of the RPAS.
With these three data, the spatial position is determined in a data format similar to that provided by GNSS systems and delivered to the ground station.
Through the data received by the system, the position provided by KEPLER ADVANCE can be used as a true reference for navigation, mission execution, representation on an interactive map, etc. and as a reliable and robust substitute for GNSS systems.
The KEPLER ADVANCE system offers a number of advantages that make it suitable for any situation:
1. High accuracy in positioning with a resolution that even improves the usual GNSS by 40%.
2. It is difficult to inhibit, as it uses LPI (Low Probability of Interception) technology, and the working frequency is not known (a priori).
3. It is highly unlikely to be subject to spoofing since it is neither public nor widely known hardware or software.
4. It works in any terrain (water, desert, etc.) and regardless of weather conditions.
5. It does not accumulate errors, so its accuracy is constant.
The KEPLER ADVANCE project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2025, although given the good progress of the work, it may be operational earlier.
About UAV Navigation - Grupo Oesía
UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía is a company specializing in the design of guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) solutions for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) since 2004. UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía's flight solutions are used by a wide range of leading aerospace manufacturers for a variety of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) or "drones."
UAV Navigation is part of the Grupo Oesía, a Spanish multinational company dedicated to dual-use digital and industrial engineering, which develops and implements projects in more than 40 countries. It has 3,200 professionals in 18 corporate headquarters in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Throughout almost 50 years of experience, it has innovated products and services that benefit millions of people around the world, with the aim of creating a better, more efficient, safer and sustainable world.
The industrial companies within the Grupo Oesía ecosystem are responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining cutting-edge technology for the Security, Defense, and Aerospace sectors, with a long track record of work in avionics for significant projects such as the Eurofighter EF-2000, A-400M, F-18, C-295, P3-B Orion, or MH-60R. The group is now involved in the most important UAV projects, including FCAS/NGWS, Eurodrone, and SIRTAP, among others.
About WAVENET RF Engineering
WAVENET RF Engineering is a company founded in early 1996, with 100% Spanish capital, whose main activity is the design and manufacture of radio frequency equipment for professional use in two main lines of business: one of them directed to radio and TV equipment, and the other to avionics systems, for unmanned vehicles, and for defense and security.
In the field of unmanned vehicles, WAVENET has excelled in the development of first level solutions for data links, video links, radio altimeter, automatic pointing system, sense & avoid collision avoidance system, etc., and has customers in the five continents working with these devices.
WAVENET also has two flying platforms for the development of the necessary tests in real conditions required by the products. Thus, all the on-board equipment manufactured by WAVENET, both in the field of Avionics and in the field of Dronics (drones) and Defense, are tested in real situations. This ensures that our products meet the requirements in terms of functionality and performance of any type of customer.
