January–March 2026 Updates

The AERPAW team has had an exciting and productive start to 2026. From launching a new monthly webinar series to conducting advanced drone experiments and participating in major outreach events, our community continues to grow and innovate at the intersection of wireless communications, aerial systems, and experimentation platforms.

A major milestone in AERPAW’s capabilities was demonstrated through a fully autonomous four-UAV coordinated flight experiment conducted by Baisakhi Chatterjee, a Ph.D. candidate at North Carolina State University. In this experiment, four drones worked together in a plume-tracking mission, executing complex rotational and expanding movement patterns around a virtual spherical plume.

The entire mission ran for approximately 15 minutes with full autonomy, requiring only minimal human oversight for safety monitoring. The UAVs successfully completed their coordinated behavior and returned safely after the mission ended.

This experiment is significant because it demonstrates reliable multi-UAV coordination in real-world conditions. It validates the platform’s ability to support scalable autonomy, seamless transition from simulation to real-world deployment, and robust execution of complex aerial behaviors.

Recently, Keiwan Soltani, a doctoral researcher at Missouri University of Science and Technology, conducted a series of experiments on the AERPAW testbed that demonstrated the platform’s robustness and flexibility.

After participating in hands-on tutorials at the 2023 AERPAW Community Workshop, Keiwan became familiar with AERPAW’s Program-it-Yourself model for experiment preparation. Using this approach, he independently designed and executed multiple experiments within the AERPAW Virtual Environment.

In his most recent work, Keiwan submitted four experiments involving demanding UAV maneuvers. Each experiment pushed an AERPAW drone to its top speed of 20 m/s (approximately 45 mph) for an extended period of time. All four experiments were executed successfully on the first attempt, with drone motors remaining cool and battery levels stable after completion.

To support the research further, the AERPAW team provided additional dataflash telemetry logs, which capture detailed information from each motor’s electronic speed controller (ESC). While most experimenters focus on wireless aspects of UAV experiments, these logs offer deeper insight into drone performance and were shared to provide additional value for Keiwan’s research.

AERPAW participated in the 2026 AFCEA North Carolina Innovation Summit, held February 17–19 at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina—one of the largest military installations in the world and a central hub for U.S. Army operations and innovation.

The summit brought together a dynamic audience of military leaders, defense agencies, technology startups, industry partners, and academic researchers, all focused on advancing innovation to support national security and mission readiness. Hosting the event at Fort Bragg created a uniquely mission-driven environment, enabling direct engagement with stakeholders operating at the forefront of defense and operational challenges.

During the exhibition, the AERPAW team engaged with attendees to demonstrate how the platform enables real-world experimentation at the intersection of advanced wireless networks and autonomous systems. Through both its digital twin environment and outdoor testbed, AERPAW offers a powerful capability for military, academic researchers, government partners, and industry innovators to design, test, and validate emerging technologies under realistic and operationally relevant conditions.

Conversations at the booth highlighted strong alignment between AERPAW’s capabilities and the needs of the defense community. Areas of particular interest included:

The summit also provided an opportunity to connect with startups and small businesses supporting military operations, many of whom are seeking accessible platforms to test and mature their technologies before deployment. AERPAW’s open, flexible, and scalable infrastructure resonated strongly with these groups, reinforcing its role as a national resource for experimentation and innovation.

Participation in the AFCEA Innovation Summit reflects AERPAW’s continued commitment to building partnerships across academia, industry, and government, and to supporting technologies that address real-world challenges in defense, public safety, and beyond.

We extend our sincere thanks to AFCEA North Carolina for organizing a highly impactful event and for fostering meaningful collaboration across the defense and technology ecosystem.

AERPAW was honored to participate in the 2026 North Carolina Advanced Mobility Symposium, hosted by AUVSI North Carolina on February 11–12. The symposium convened a diverse and highly engaged audience of industry leaders, startups, government representatives, defense stakeholders, and academic researchers, all focused on advancing the future of autonomous and connected mobility systems.

As part of the session “Local Impact, National Reach,” Dr. Magreth Mushi, AERPAW Platform Director, delivered a presentation titled:
“AERPAW: Where Advanced Wireless Meets Autonomy—At Scale.”

Her presentation highlighted the critical need for platforms like AERPAW in addressing a persistent challenge in advanced mobility innovation: the gap between simulation, lab testing, and real-world deployment. Traditional environments are often fragmented and lack the realism required to validate complex systems—particularly those involving autonomous aerial systems (UAS) and next-generation wireless networks.

AERPAW addresses this gap by providing a fully integrated experimentation ecosystem that combines:

Together, these capabilities enable researchers, startups, and government partners to move more efficiently from concept to deployment—testing technologies under realistic conditions that reflect operational environments.

The presentation also showcased AERPAW’s expanding impact across three key areas:

Examples of AERPAW-enabled innovation—such as UAV-based data collection, spectrum monitoring, and autonomous data delivery—resonated strongly with attendees, particularly those working in defense, public safety, and advanced mobility sectors.

The symposium provided valuable opportunities to connect with startups and companies developing mobility solutions for real-world applications, many of whom are seeking platforms to test, validate, and demonstrate their technologies. AERPAW’s open and scalable infrastructure positions it as a critical enabler for these efforts.

We thank AUVSI North Carolina for organizing an outstanding event and for fostering collaboration across North Carolina’s growing advanced mobility ecosystem.

AERPAW was at the Defense Industrial Supply Chain (DISC) Summit on March 18-19 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where it showcased its aerial experimentation platform and capabilities for advanced wireless and drone research.

The presentation highlighted AERPAW’s integrated digital twin and real-world testbed, enabling seamless transition from simulation to field experimentation. It also featured the platform’s large and small multicopter systems, portable nodes, and flexible payload design supporting custom radios, antennas, and sensors.

Additional focus areas included how AERPAW supports advanced UAV experimentation and emerging applications such as drone dominance, coordinated aerial systems, and next-generation wireless communication research.

We are excited to share that our paper, “Curated Wireless Datasets for Aerial Network Research,” has been accepted to npj Wireless Technology.

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of AERPAW’s wireless datasets, including representative results and use cases across UAV communications, spectrum analysis, and next-generation wireless systems.

AERPAW currently hosts 30+ public datasets, with approximately 50,000 page views and 900,000 downloads across IEEE DataPort and DataDryad.

Wireless Datasets Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.08752

Researchers involved in the NSF AERPAW Autonomous Data Mule (AADM) Challenge have released a comprehensive multimodal UAV wireless dataset collected through experiments conducted both in simulation and at the AERPAW Lake Wheeler Field Labs in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The AADM Challenge brought together 22 research teams developing autonomous UAV algorithms to dynamically select base stations and optimize trajectories to maximize data download under mission constraints. Eleven finalist teams advanced from digital twin simulations to real-world experimentation.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released a Public Notice titled “Unleashing American Drone Dominance”, which highlights AERPAW as a success story under the FCC’s Innovation Zone program.

FCC Public Notice: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-314A1.pdf

The Commission is now seeking public input on how to improve U.S. drone testing infrastructure and regulatory frameworks for emerging UAV technologies.

This is an important opportunity for the AERPAW community to directly influence future drone policy and ensure that regulatory decisions reflect real-world research and experimentation needs.

Key topics the FCC is requesting feedback on:

Comment Deadline: May 1, 2026
Docket: GN Docket No. 26-74

If you have used AERPAW for research or testing, your feedback is especially valuable.

AERPAW has been running a structured webinar series every last Friday of the month at 10 am ET aimed at improving accessibility for new users and researchers. Earlier sessions focused first on introducing the overall platform architecture and then gradually moving into more technical demonstrations of the system.

One of the key sessions provided a detailed breakdown of how AERPAW is structured internally, including how wireless infrastructure, UAV systems, and experiment orchestration layers interact. Another session focused on a live portal demonstration, showing users exactly how experiments are created, submitted, and monitored using the platform interface.

Upcoming Webinars (Tentative Schedule):

Together, these sessions are helping bridge the gap between theoretical understanding and practical usage, especially for new researchers who are unfamiliar with large-scale UAV experimentation platforms.

We encourage all members of the AERPAW community to stay engaged with key resources: