An Exemplary Platform of Integrated sAV/sUAS System for VHF/UHF-Band Video-Based Navigation in Extreme-Terrain Environments

In this paper, we present an integration of VHF/UHF-band video streaming from a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) with a small autonomous vehicle (sAV) to enable long-range navigation planning in extreme-terrain environments. The use of VHF/UHF-band video transmission from the aerial unit to the ground vehicle overcomes the limitations of conventional GHz-range wireless links in non-line-of-sight scenarios. In our system, a video payload carried by an sUAS captures and streams multi-angle videos using infrared and non-infrared cameras over a single UHF/VHF link, while another payload mounted on a ground sAV receives and processes the videos in real time for path planning. We discuss the benefits of VHF/UHF bands for video transmission to achieve an extended coverage range. This paper also summarizes the key flow of software configuration learned from realizing our 1/5th-scale sAV prototype system.