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Logo mock-hup
We came to the hackathon with two ideas - carrier drones and optical fiber networks. As we thought about and developed both, we came up with the solution of fiber optic drone connection ports, allowing drones to be chained together.
The problem
On the frontline in Ukraine, there is an abyss - an eye of terror - for radio signals. Any radio controlled drone which would try to cross the front line would inevitably be faced with signal interference and most likely lost to the drone operator. While optical drones exist, and do not have such signal interference problems, they are limited by the length of their cable. Our idea tries to solve both issues.
The idea
A fiber optic drone flies across the frontline, where most of the radio jamming occurs (electronic warfare eye of terror). It lands and acts as a relay and charging station. Another optic fiber drone is launched and flies blind (dead reckoning) across the front line (without deploying its optical fiber) to the relay station (the landed drone) and emits a radio frequency with a password when nearby. The relay station accepts the password and takes radio command of the drone. The drone attaches its fiber optic cable to the relay stations connection port, charges its battery by connecting to the relay stations generator and then flies further - either to whack a target or to be set up as another relay station. A daisy chain of optical fiber drones. By having just 2 relay stations and a spool of 30km on each drone, the effective range of optical fiber drones would be increased to 90km. The last drone in the line would be connected by optical fiber, giving the pilots excellent vision and control to whack any target. Also, the relay drones can also act as monitoring stations, gathering information on nearby enemy movements, while deployed.
Further application
The relay stations could be used for controlling radio controlled drones (which make around 90% of Ukraine's drone supply compared to only 10% using optical fiber). The drones can be flown blind across the front line to the relay stations and to a point where the jamming is not significant enough, can be controlled again through radio communications behind the front line.
While the whole system would have a lot of possible points of failure, drones are cheap, so the successful cases would more than make up for failures.
A civilian application for the chaining of fiber optic drones is in the case of disaster relief (f.e. after a hurricane or tsunami), where, for example, almost all telecommunications have been severed, communication links could be set up in hours.
The product
Having listened to the mentor presentations, we decided that most value in this idea would be focusing on the connection ports. It's a subsystem of the drone, dual-use, thus allowing us to have a clear business case (not just "we are building super duper cool drones which can bomb people far away").
The prototype
Prototype is a connection port with a wire spool, iteratively designing a reliable remote mating solution from an unstable to a stable platform. Follow up is a custom lightweight design for the SFP support PCB. Initial testing done by hand, later the fiber side is moved to a drone, while the receptacle is still on a stable platform (also a potential use case), following is integration with the drone controls and relay network, dual mode RF/OF controls. With time, it is possible to move away from SFP plugs and towards a custom lighter solution, since it’s a one time use device, not a rugged, long term solution.
3D vizualizācija? Odolink mock up has been created using FreeCAD, the drone model from internet resources, mashed together in Blender.
Weight: Target weight is 250g for the receptacle system, 50g for the plug, at least initially. Range: Range - limited by battery capacity Ports: Using server standard SFP-LC bidirectional connections, at least for initial testing
Repeaters: Built into the SFP-LC plugs Optical fibre: Standard 0.23mm strand, commonly used in optic-fiber controlled drones
What is next?
We think this idea is very cool. If the jury and mentors agree, it would be be very interesting for us to try to develop it further or at least spread the idea to someone who would act on it.
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