Keeping the Channels Open: MMC’s Tethered-Drone System Provides Powerful Telecommunications Solution in Extreme Weather Conditions
It’s rainy reason along the lower-middle course of the Yangtze River in China. While the poetically named “Plum Rains” lead to the lush crops of grain and tea that give the region part of it’s beauty, the area also includes some of the most populated cities in the world – technology powerhouses that contribute over 20% of China’s GDP. Despite the expected average of nearly 8 inches of rain in one month, residents and businesses cannot afford to be without a communications network, despite extreme floods in many places.
Leading industrial drone manufacturer MMC has successfully tested their tethered drone systems to maintain normal telecommunications in Jiashan, in the Zhejiang Province, where the company has a branch office.
MMC’s tether system is a cost-effective and drone agnostic tethered power system. The tether can keep a drone in the air for hundreds of hours continuously – offering 24/7 operation when used with some drones – and holds the drone in one location, at heights of up to and exceeding 400 feet.
The system has proven its resilience by bringing a communications network in the toughest of wet environments. The tests are a crucial example of the life-saving power of drone technology – demonstrating the global potential for the system to provide telecommunication in emergency response situations. With a reliable solution for re-establishing the network immediately after an environmental disaster, not only can business continue – but lives will be saved.
Small size and lower altitude drones equipped with a tether system offer huge advantages in establishing emergency telecommunication networks. Carrying a telecommunications payload, the drones operate as a miniature, low-cost communications satellite – essentially providing a continuously flying hotspot. Easy to transport and incredibly fast to launch, the equipment can be set up within minutes. Despite their small size, drones can provide a communications network over large areas.
In addition to the telecommunications network, MMC’s T1 system is used around the world for military, security and industrial applications including persistent aerial surveillance, traffic monitoring, industrial inspections, and mobile network relay stations. With MMC’s patented “plug-and-play” payload options – providing hundreds of payload options for a single drone – and customization services, the system allows customers to expand use of the T1 power system to a wide range of potential uses.
The MMC T1 Tether System is available now, for use with a range of drones including the MMC TDrone 1200, DJI Matrice 600, DJI Matrice 600 Pro, DJI S1000 and so on.
