Bridge-to-Bridge Radio for Unmanned Surface Vehicles

Persistent’s proposed solution is to connect our Wave Relay® MANET-enabled MPU5 radio device to a bridge-based VHF radio system to translate voice commands to text, meaning, and a response to a proposed maneuver. The MPU5 device provides the processing power for translating voice commands into a COLREGS reasoning engine application running natively on the MPU5 Android™ OS. The MPU5’s Android™ application will process the voice-to-text command and generate an intelligent reply to a proposed maneuver. Another option is to process the voice command translation-to-proposed maneuver logic in an application running on an external processing device connected to the MPU5 in the Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV). The external processing device would be coupled with the MPU5 via an Ethernet or USB connection. The audible proposed maneuver would then be sent from the USV-installed MPU5 to the bridge-based MPU5. The end goal is to relay the proposed maneuver to the tethered VHF radio system on the bridge that initiated communications. The key differentiators of Persistent’s solution are: The ability to tether to VHF radio systems and provide digital conversion of analog audio to precise text commands and responses The capability of running 3rd party applications containing speech-to-text-to-meaning-to-response algorithms natively on the MPU5 Android™ OS Reduced Size, Weight, and Power, and infrastructure costs Reduced installation overhead (i.e. labor and materials, zero cabling costs, and timelines) High Operational Availability (Ao) and low life-cycle costs – reduced ILS and maintenance Planning Zero Service Charges for data link or high throughput rates – US Navy owns the local MANET Ease of MANET setup and maintenance with minimal-to-no service disruption Maximum bandwidth dependent on number of nodes and throughput exercised Reduced operation and maintenance costs Consistent and efficient enterprise-wide connectivity (if desired) Secure wireless network offering RF band diversity (1.3 – 5.9 GHz) Fault tolerant, robust, resilient wireless transport backhaul network One-stop solution that enables future spiral development and scalability