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