The National Science Foundation announced a $24 million grant to NC State University and the Wireless Research Center to establish The Aerial Experimentation and Research Platform for Advanced Wireless (AERPAW). WRC Technologies has been leading the deployment and operation of testbed sites since 2019 beginning in Raleigh, part of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park region.

Research focuses on 5G wireless communications for unmanned aerial systems (drones) and ground mobility for autonomous vehicles. The objective is to accelerate the integration of drones into national airspace through new advanced wireless communications and establish new strategies to deploy networks for public safety using drones.

WRC Technologies will provide access to its unique services and capabilities including applied research, engineering and testing to AERPAW and its partners. The WRC’s RIoT initiative provides AERPAW users with access to one of the nation’s largest IoT communities of technology solution providers, entrepreneurs and evangelists.

• WRC Senior Staff Engineer Mike Barts serves as the AERPAW deployment and operations manager.
• WRC Senior Architect Asokan Ram serves as the AERPAW senior deployment engineer.