Skypersonic has demonstrated a UAV being remotely piloted across the Atlantic Ocean using a standard mobile phone (writes Nick Flaherty).

An operator in Orlando, Florida, controlled a Skycopter UAV inspecting a utility plant in Turin, Italy – a distance of4800 miles. The cage-based spherical UAV is 35 cm in diameter, weighs 950g and has a flight time of 14 minutes.

The Orlando-based pilot had no advance knowledge of the Iren district heating plant in Turin. The signal latency was 68ms, allowing safe piloting via the video feed alone, as the UAV is designed to be used without GNSS satellite navigation for inspections. The Skycopter’s radio controller connects to a PC with software that optimises the packets over a dedicated virtual network link via a mobile phone.

“This is actually our third trans-Atlantic flight,” said Giuseppe Santangelo, CEO of Skypersonic, which builds the UAVs. “We learned that an internet connection via a mobile phone in the vicinity of the UAV is all that is needed to remotely pilot it from virtually anywhere – in fact, up to8000 miles away.

“The previous two flights had relied on a more sophisticated, non-mobile internet connection. We also learned that it is possible to navigate a very dense and complex interior environment from another continent using this set-up.