In challenging environments, such as dense urban landscapes, it is important to have a reliable method of communication for controlling unmanned vehicles. Is UWB (Ultra-wideband) capable of delivering this reliability?

Remote control of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) over wireless is seldom uninterrupted especially in high interference or obstructive environments. We designed deployable battery-powered, Ultra-Wideband RF nodes for fast and reliable communication in this environment.

Through a chain of nodes, image, LiDAR map data, and movement commands are sent between the UGV and the control station. Data transmission over our UWB nodes is half-duplex, so we designed a novel transmission protocol for sending such data as efficiently as possible given our limitations.

• Design low-cost and self-sufficient radio relay nodes using the Decawave DWM3000 Ultrawide Bandwidth (UBW) radio module and PIR sensors

• Develop a system to deploy the nodes from an UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle)

• The UGV should have a LiDAR module and be capable of SLAM on board the UGV's processor.

• The user should be able to control the robot and receive data about the environment.