Sagetech Avionics, an innovative technology company providing industry-leading safety solutions for unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, a leading UAS technology company, announced that they have completed the integration of Sagetech's UAV transponders with the world's leading open source autopilot, ArduPilot. The two companies successfully tested the new integration onboard the K1000 Ultra Long Endurance (K1000ULE) UAV, 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," stated 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."

"The use of transponders in compliance with aviation standards is a key step to advancing the UAV industry for safe integration into controlled airspace," said 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 mediumto-high altitudes while carrying out complex missions," said Kraus.

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