The AERPAW team has had an exciting and productive spring and summer in 2026. From advancing autonomous multi-UAV experimentation and expanding real-world wireless research to participating in major industry events, publishing new research resources, and continuing our monthly webinar series, AERPAW continues to connect researchers, industry partners, and the broader wireless and aerial systems community.

AERPAW recently supported a new real-time multi-UAV autonomous coordination experiment by Kevin Dee, Research Scientist at the University of California, Irvine. The experiment involved two UAV-mounted software-defined radio (SDR) nodes, with one UAV operating as a transmitter at 3.32 GHz and the other acting as a receiver to collect communication metrics including signal-to-noise ratio, signal power, and link quality.

A fixed coordination node issued waypoint and go-to commands over cellular links while the UAVs autonomously synchronized their movements while maintaining collision avoidance and geofencing constraints.

The experiment demonstrated a complete research pipeline, beginning with MATLAB-based simulation and algorithm development, followed by MATLAB Coder deployment, emulation refinement, and successful execution on the AERPAW outdoor testbed. The UAVs completed synchronized takeoff, mission execution, and landing while maintaining safety constraints, with strong agreement between simulated and real-world trajectories.

This work highlights AERPAW’s ability to support scalable, repeatable, and realistic experimentation for autonomous wireless systems and multi-UAV coordination research.

Congratulations to Kevin D. and collaborators Reza Barzegaran, Hamid Jafarkhani, and Lee Swindlehurst on this successful demonstration under NSF CPS Grant CNS-2209695.

In April, Keiwan Soltani, a doctoral researcher at Missouri University of Science and Technology, demonstrated the flexibility and robustness of the AERPAW testbed through a series of demanding UAV experiments.

Building on hands-on tutorials from the 2023 AERPAW Community Workshop, Keiwan used AERPAW’s Program-it-Yourself approach to independently design and execute multiple experiments in the Virtual Environment. His work included four experiments involving high-speed UAV maneuvers, with each experiment pushing an AERPAW drone to its maximum speed of 20 m/s, or approximately 45 mph.

All four experiments were successfully completed on the first attempt. The experiments also generated detailed dataflash telemetry logs, including information from each motor’s electronic speed controller (ESC), providing additional insight into UAV performance beyond the wireless measurements typically collected by researchers.

The work demonstrates how AERPAW allows researchers to independently design complex experiments while providing the infrastructure and technical support needed to move those experiments toward real-world validation.

AERPAW was recently featured in the article “The Lab Without Walls: How AERPAW Is Building Tomorrow’s Wireless Workforce,” highlighting how the platform is giving students and researchers hands-on experience with advanced wireless technologies.

Hosted at NC State University and part of the NSF advanced wireless ecosystem, AERPAW provides an open environment where participants can design, test, and validate wireless systems using drones, software-defined radios, and digital twin technologies.

The article highlights AERPAW’s student challenges and research collaborations, including the work of 30+ student teams exploring applications such as UAV communications, networking, and emergency response systems.

Read the full article: “The Lab Without Walls: How AERPAW Is Building Tomorrow’s Wireless Workforce”

AERPAW was featured at NI Connect 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas, highlighting its role as a national research platform advancing wireless innovation and autonomous aerial systems.

Representing AERPAW, Mushfiqur Rahman discussed how AERPAW enables researchers to explore the intersection of drones and wireless communications and highlighted the platform’s contributions to the development of next-generation aerial connectivity.

The event provided an opportunity to engage with academic researchers and industry leaders interested in wireless communications, 6G, UAV systems, and emerging technologies.

AERPAW research was recently highlighted at the IEEE VTC Workshop on Channel Modeling and Propagation for Future Mobile Communications through a presentation by Dr. Ismail Guvenc, Professor at NC State University.

The talk, “Characterizing the UAV Air-to-Ground Channel: Field Measurements, AI-Based Modeling, and Radio Environment Maps on AERPAW,” presented measurement-grounded research conducted through the AERPAW testbed over the past several years.

The presentation reviewed findings from 21 research papers across eight areas, including:

The work demonstrates how experiments and publicly available datasets from the AERPAW testbed at NC State are supporting research in UAV communications, wireless channel modeling, and future 6G systems.

AERPAW was featured at the 2026 Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) through a hands-on tutorial, “Programming the SDRs and UAVs at NSF AERPAW Platform.” The tutorial introduced participants to the AERPAW platform and its capabilities for experimenting with advanced wireless technologies and autonomous drones, giving researchers the opportunity to explore wireless research in a realistic outdoor testbed.

AERPAW is heading into a busy fall with several opportunities for researchers, students, and industry partners to connect and collaborate.

September 21–25 | Raleigh, NC

Join us at GNU Radio Conference 2026 (GRCon26) in Raleigh, NC, September 21–25, for an exciting AERPAW outdoor field demonstration on Friday, September 25.

The demo will showcase AERPAW’s wireless research capabilities in action, giving attendees a chance to see how software-defined radios, wireless platforms, and real-world experimentation come together in the field.

📍 Talley Student Union, NC State University
📅 September 25, 2026
📡 AERPAW Outdoor Demonstration

Registration Link: GNU Radio Conference 2026

GRCon26 brings together researchers, developers, industry professionals, and wireless enthusiasts from across the GNU Radio community. We’re excited to demonstrate what’s possible with AERPAW and connect with the community!

Learn more about GRCon26 and the AERPAW demonstration: GNU Radio Conference 2026

September 28, 2026 | George Washington University | 9 AM - 5 PM

The 2026 Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) PI Meeting is coming to George Washington University on September 28, 2026.

This year’s meeting will bring together PAWR project teams, researchers, and the broader wireless research community for a full day of platform presentations, research talks, interactive discussions, poster sessions, and networking opportunities. The meeting will also be held alongside FABRIC’s KNIT13 on September 28 and MERIF on September 29–30.

AERPAW will be featured at the 2026 PAWR PI Meeting, highlighting the platform and research being conducted through AERPAW.

PAWR PI Meeting attendees are also encouraged to stay in Washington, DC for MERIF, September 29–30. A separate registration is required for MERIF.

Learn more: MERIF 2026 - MERIF26 Meeting Information

October 13–14 | Raleigh, NC

The OAI Foundation Hands-on Workshop is coming to North Carolina State University, bringing together researchers, developers, students, and industry contributors working in open-source wireless and next-generation networks.

There is still time to contribute to the workshop! Participants can submit:

Selected proposals will be featured in the workshop program.

Submission Deadline: September 14, 2026
Submit Proposals: Send completed proposals to workshop@openairinterface.org

Download the submission form: Demolightning-talk-form-OAIF-Hands-on-Workshop.pdf

Register: OAI Foundation Hands-on Workshop at North Carolina State University

Learn more: OAI Foundation Hands-on Workshop at North Carolina State University – OpenAirInterface

On July 30, 2026, ORAN Development Company (ODC) conducted an on-site demonstration at AERPAW’s Lake Wheeler outdoor testbed, showcasing its AI-RAN platform and Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) capabilities in a real-world wireless environment.

The demonstration showed how a single radio system and waveform could support both wireless communications and sensing simultaneously. Sensing information was derived from a pole-mounted UE through an uplink to a nearby cell tower base station, while the base station-maintained downlink communications with additional UEs. When an AERPAW drone entered the coverage area, the wireless system successfully detected the drone using sensing information derived from the network.

The demonstration also highlighted the flexibility of the AERPAW testbed, with ODC operating its platform on different server configurations and exploring multiple connectivity options, including fiber, cellular, and satellite backhaul.

ODC’s demonstration illustrates how AERPAW enables industry partners to move emerging wireless technologies beyond the laboratory and evaluate them in realistic environments. The platform’s programmable wireless infrastructure, spectrum resources, UAVs, edge computing capabilities, and outdoor deployment areas support research in communications, sensing, AI-enabled networks, and network resilience.

AERPAW continued its monthly webinar series throughout the spring and summer, providing researchers, students, and practitioners with accessible introductions to the platform as well as deeper technical discussions.

AERPAW in Action: Fieldwork and Findings

On April 24th, Dr. Mihail Sichitiu presented “AERPAW in Action: Fieldwork and Findings,” providing a behind-the-scenes look at taking experiments from concept to the field using the AERPAW outdoor testbed.

Channel Emulation & Digital Twin Dynamics

On June 26th, Anıl Gürses presented “Channel Emulation & Digital Twin Dynamics for AERPAW Users” where he explained how researchers can use them to simulate real-world environments, plan experiments, and test scenarios before moving into field deployment.

3GPP Update: The Latest News Regarding the 6G Cellular Standard

On July 31st, Sarah LaSelva, Chief Product Marketing Manager for RF & Wireless at NI, presented an overview of the latest developments in 3GPP and the evolution of the 6G cellular standard.

AERPAW & O-RAN Operations

On August 28th, Dr. Vijay K. Shah led “AERPAW & O-RAN: Open RAN Operations,” providing an overview of O-RAN and AI-RAN architecture and exploring how AERPAW supports O-RAN research and experimentation.

Upcoming Webinars (Tentative Schedule):

Registration Link: Webinar Registration - Zoom

Together, these webinars continue to build a bridge between theoretical wireless research and practical experimentation, helping new and experienced users better understand how to design, validate, and deploy experiments using AERPAW.

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