Drone Swarms Hardware Questions

[v.bansal]

Hi ModalAI team and community — I'm building a UAV swarm research testbed and planning to use ModalAI Starling FPV as my primary platform. I need guidance on communication hardware available through ModalAI or your ecosystem.

What I'm buying:

• Multiple ModalAI Starling FPV units
• Starlink Max terminals for backhaul

Two use cases I want to test:

Case 1: Decentralized — All drones talk directly to my laptop

• Each drone sends telemetry (power, position, video) independently to my laptop
• My laptop broadcasts commands to all drones simultaneously
• Drones coordinate behavior based on laptop commands
• Question: What communication modules/radios enable this? (mesh radio, ground modem, etc.)

Case 2: Centralized — Single leader drone controls the swarm

• One leader Starling stays linked to my laptop (via Starlink or local radio)
• Leader broadcasts commands to follower drones over local mesh
• Followers relay telemetry back through the leader to my laptop
• Question: Does Starling FPV support this mesh topology natively? What additional hardware?

My specific questions:

1. What communication modules/radios does ModalAI offer or recommend for drone-to-drone mesh?
2. Does Starling FPV have native mesh capabilities, or do I need to integrate external radios (XBee, RFD900x, Doodle Labs, etc.)?
3. For Case 1 (all drones → laptop), what's the recommended ground modem or radio module?
4. For Case 2 (leader → followers), can I use Starling's onboard comms, or do I need external mesh hardware?
5. Are there reference designs or example swarms already built on Starling that I can learn from?

Thanks!