Image: Enno Kapitza for DLR
The focus of the department Communications Systems is on aeronautical, car-to-car and train-to-train communications, on multisensor navigation, and swarm exploration. Most of these topics treat system aspects. We foster the development and standardization of LDACS, the future worldwide aeronautical communication standard for air traffic management. We enable accurate pedestrian indoor navigation based on multisensor fusion. We aim at exploring planets and supporting disaster management with autonomously and decentralized operating swarms of rovers and aerial platforms. To increase safety on rail and road we develop robust and reliable communications systems and methods for relative positioning. For many of these topics we need detailed knowledge of wave propagation; thus, we carry out channel measurement for various environments (ground-air, satellite-air, satellite-ground, ship-ship, ship-shore, train-train, car-car), develop accurate models and contribute to the standardization at ITU-R.