Get full control over missions beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) with threefold redundant, encrypted radio links (4G/LTE, 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz, mesh capable)

Keep your existing Remote Controller

With HyraCom you can continue using almost any familiar hand-held transmitter like FrSky Taranis X9D+, Futaba, Graupner etc. — you are not forced to use a separate keyboard for cumbersome hitting of direction keys or virtual controls on touch screens. You only have to enable the trainer port of your controller and plug in the HyraCom Ground Unit. The transmitter of your hand-held controller should be disabled in order to avoid interference with the HyraCom 2.4 GHz link.

On your aircraft, simply replace your S-Bus receiver with the HyraCom Air Unit, which provides 16 channel S-Bus output as well. As latency of the control stream is typically in the range of 50 ... 200 ms, on larger drones you will usually not feel any lag.

Easily route your serial (e.g. MAVLink based) Telemetry and Mission data through HyraCom

HyraCom provides a transparent serial transmission for your telemetry data. You can directly connect the serial UART to the Telem port of your flight controller (e.g. Pixhawk) at the default 57.6 kbps baud rate. If your flight controller provides MAVLink based telemetry, the HyraCom ground unit will automatically detect it and will provide you an independent Ground Control Station (GCS) displaying the most important information on a bright 7″ screen. You will see the aircraft's current position on a live map, altitude, heading, speed, distance to home point, battery level, number of satellites, current flight mode and some information about the radio link quality.

For more detailed status information, configuration, waypoint mission control etc. you can forward the serial telemetry / command / control data wirelessly to a ground control station software like “Mission Planner” (preferred for ArduCopter flight stack) or QGroundControl (preferred for PX4 flight stack) running on your laptop. You are not forced to use proprietary ground control stations and so you can freely choose from latest open source or commercial GCS software. The wireless connection requires Bluetooth enabled on your laptop.

Easily stream HD live video

HyraCom allows you to stream HD live video (h.264) with low latency to your Ground Unit and/or almost any other device connected to the internet. It is possible to view the live video stream in parallel on more than one device — worldwide!

The stream can either come from a little FPV camera module (weighs only few grams) or from a separate camera through an HDMI port. Image quality can be controlled through selected data rate. E.g. at 2 Mbps you already get a good quality which will consume about 1.8 GB per hour (900 MB on each end point) from your data plan. On a typical 4G connection, latency for the live video will be about 200 ms.

Triple redundant and encrypted long-range BVLOS data link

As long as you are within an area with 3G/4G (LTE) mobile network coverage, you will get a control / telemetry / data / HD video link almost without any limitations in speed and distance. Unshaped telemetry and live video will be transmitted with high data rates. But even if you want to fly in an area with limited mobile network coverage, HyraCom will provide you a stable, low latency and AES encrypted control and telemetry connection through a long-range 2.4 GHz and 868 MHz radio link with optimized traffic shaping algorithms. The radio modules work CE conform, the 868 MHz connection uses interference reduction techniques (LBT + AFA) required by ETSI in order to liberate from duty cycle limitations.

The clou is that the range of the radio connection can be enhanced by automatically setting up an ad hoc mesh network incorporating additional repeater nodes. It also allows you to keep the connection to your aircraft even when it flies behind buildings.

Future versions may also support control and telemetry links through satellite connections.

UTM Integration, user plugins with ground unit and onboard API

HyraCom supports integration into UTM scenarios through an API plugin mechanism on the air unit as well as on the ground unit. You can deploy your own plugin code that gets access to the serial data stream coming from the flight controller.

A reference implementation contains a MAVLink parser that is able to detect and forward messages of type UTM_GLOBAL_POSITION (#340) directly from the aircraft via internet to the German Air Traffic Control (DFS).

The solution was already used in an UTM integration test scenario in Hamburg together with the HPA (Hamburg Port Authority) as part of the “City ATM” project of DLR (Deutsches Luft- und Raumfahrtzentrum) with participation of partners NXP, FlyNex, DFS (Deutsche Flugsicherung), ZAL (Zentrum für angewandte Luftfahrtforschung) and Auterion. See also:

• DLR — City ATM project gallery
• Vimeo — City ATM
• YouTube — Drohneneinsatz im Hamburger Hafen
• DLR test report (PDF)

Summarized Features

• Range of control / telemetry / HD video via mobile network link (3G / 4G where covered): unlimited
• Range of control + telemetry via 2.4 GHz (Europe, CE and ETSI conform): about 2 km (can be extended by mesh network nodes)
• Range of control + telemetry via 868 MHz (Europe, CE and ETSI conform): to be determined (can be extended by mesh network nodes)
• Encryption: AES
• Video quality (h.264): up to 1080p30 or 720p60, hardware encoding, adjustable bitrate
• Display: 7 inch touch screen
• Latency: typically between 50 ... 200 ms (increases in case you set up a mesh network with repeaters)
• Telemetry decoding and display on ground unit: MAVLink 1 and 2 compatible
• Interfaces on Air Unit: S-Bus, Serial UART, USB A, micro USB, one-wire bus, HDMI, Ethernet
• Interfaces on Ground Unit: PPM input (up to 16 channels from trainer port), USB A, micro USB, Ethernet, Serial (UART and via Bluetooth)
• Command output on aircraft: S-Bus (up to 16 channels)
• Default serial telemetry data rate: 57600 baud (adjustable)
• Additional telemetry: temperature of up to 4 sensors that can be distributed on aircraft (e.g. on ESC, battery)
• Plugin mechanism for custom user code using an onboard API providing MAVLink telemetry data stream
• Firmware updates: OTA (over the air)
• CPUs: Quadcore (1.4 GHz) + Cortex M4 Microcontroller for low level functions
• Optional UTM integration: forwarding of UTM_GLOBAL_POSITION messages to air traffic control (e.g. DFS)

Options

Meanwhile there is a super lightweight version available that weighs only 35g including an FPV camera. Here you can see it on a sub250g mini drone (ArduCopter software stack, 1-axis stabilized double camera system including a thermal camera, 40 minutes BVLOS flight time!):