Aerospace technology company Sagetech Avionics and UAS technology company Kraus Hamdani have announced that they have completed the integration of Sagetech’s UAV transponders with ArduPilot, a leading open source autopilot.

The new integration was successfully tested onboard the K1000 Ultra Long Endurance (K1000ULE) UAV, which is the world’s longest endurance, fully electric aircraft in its size and weight category.

“We’re thrilled to provide UAV innovators like Kraus Hamdani with reliable, integrated transponders for new platforms,” says Sagetech Avionics CEO Tom Furey.

“The integration of time-proven systems like ArduPilot and Sagetech’s ADS-B transponders ensures the safe flight of unmanned aircraft in controlled airspace, over long ranges, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), and at night.”

Through its partnership with Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, Sagetech adds ArduPilot support to its long list of autopilots that natively integrate with its XP Series of UAV transponders, the company says. Instructions for integrating Sagetech transponders with ArduPilot-based UAVs are available on the ArduPilot website.

“The use of transponders in compliance with aviation standards is a key step to advancing the UAV industry for safe integration into controlled airspace,” says Kraus Hamdani Aerospace CTO and co-founder, Stefan Kraus.

“Coupled with our contributions to the ArduPilot community for Sagetech’s low SWaP XP transponder, our fully autonomous K1000ULE platform can safely operate for extended periods in controlled airspace and at medium-to-high altitudes while carrying out complex missions.”