Autonomous systems help machines perform and communicate predetermined tasks and make decisions without the need for human interaction.

These systems can be integrated with satellite communications enabling drones, IoT devices or mobile assets to carry out missions or tasks in remote and inhospitable environments. Doing so can reduce risks to personnel, expedite data gathering and analyses, and deliver actionable information. 

Autonomous systems can include uncrewed surface vessels (USV) gathering data at sea, unattended sensors monitoring environmental changes, driverless cars navigating city streets, and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAs) conducting surveillance or delivering packages.

Reliable Comms Required

Despite not requiring real-time human control, the success of any deployed autonomous asset relies on having reliable and secure communications. 

This is necessary for monitoring anomalies, providing new commands, taking remote control, requesting status and machine health information, and the transmission of gathered mission data. 

When venturing beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), autonomous assets benefit most from a weather-resilient satellite communications service that doesn’t limit their geographic deployment. 

SATCOM networks like Iridium^® fulfill the requirements of autonomous systems and serves as a reliable primary communications solution while also providing a cost-effective backup option for cellular service if networks are compromised or an asset ventures beyond coverage.

Built-to-Spec or Off-the-Shelf

Iridium and its partners have developed connectivity solutions for autonomous systems that scale in size, weight, power and bandwidth based on the needs of the assets and their missions. 

Supported by the Iridium's low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, exclusively providing weather-resilient, truly global connectivity, autonomous systems can remain connected everywhere, including inhospitable environments. Iridium and Iridium Connected^® partner solutions can be integrated directly into a system or integrated as a low-profile add-on, reducing time to deployment.

Iridium in Autonomous Systems Today 

Examples of these solutions today are Swoop Aero UAVs, Saildrone USVs and the McQ OWL^® unattended sensor.

• Swoop Aero: UAV Autonomy

Many of Iridium partner, Swoop Aero’s, UAVs are deployed to challenging environments, making drone delivery a safer, faster and more reliable alternative to traditional ground transportation. In one such case, Swoop Aero has been successfully delivering vaccines to remote villages in Vanuatu, saving days of hiking mountainous islands and racing the clock against their refrigeration systems expiring. 

Read the case study

• Saildrone: Patrolling the Oceans Intelligently with USVs

Iridium partner Saildrone captures video footage, wind speed, direction, temperature, and other critical data from inside hurricanes.

This helps meteorologists create more predictive models by gaining a better understanding of the impacts of climate change. Understanding how to better predict the behavior of hurricanes and similar storms can help population centers better prepare for their impact, potentially saving lives.

Discover Saildrone's capabilities

• McQ: Keeping a Smart Eye on Things with Unattended Sensors

Iridium partner McQ’s OWL Intelligent Camera is a fully autonomous remote video surveillance sensor that uses advanced radar algorithms to determine the importance of people, animals, vehicles or objects detected in its field of view.

Based on the information gathered, the sensor can decide to take certain actions – photos, videos or audio recordings – and communicate that information back to an operations center.

Learn more about McQ's OWL Intelligent Camera

As the world speeds towards a new generation of AI systems and autonomous deployed assets, Iridium is providing the truly global, resilient connectivity backbone, that will enable its true potential.