Ukrainian Developers Demonstrate Fiber-Optic Drone Control Systems

17 December, 2024 FPV drone with integrated fiber optic coil. Source: DRONARIUM Ukrainian developers have demonstrated new capabilities of fiber-optic communication systems integrated into various types of drones.

This was reported by Militarnyi journalists, who attended the Demo Day of the DRONARIUM team. A special coil, media convector, and flight controller are integrated into ground and aerial vehicles. The coil weighs about 2.3 kg and has a wire length of up to 10 km.

The introduction of fiber-optic systems in unmanned and crewless aerial vehicles brings the fight against electronic warfare to a new level. Drones become invulnerable to interference, and the quality of communication remains stable under any conditions. During the demonstration, the team showed aggressive maneuvering of an FPV drone with fiber-optic control and a payload. The team also demonstrated bomber drones that performed bombing missions over forested areas.

In addition, the team demonstrated FPV drones dropping munitions and then performing combat missions.

FPV drone with integrated fiber optic coil. Source: DRONARIUM

The main advantages of fiber-optic systems are stable transmission of telemetry, control and video data with minimal delay. The systems have a bandwidth of 100 to 1000 Mbps.

Ground drone with an integrated fiber optic coil.

Source: DRONARIUM

They do not react to enemy electronic countermeasures and are ten times cheaper than secure radio communication systems, which have much more modest characteristics.

The main disadvantage is the low probability of fiber breakage, which is minimized by using materials from reliable suppliers and training operators through a short training course on the management of unmanned aerial systems based on fiber-optic systems.