# Real-Time Digital Video Streaming at Low-VHF for Compact Autonomous Agents in Complex Scenes

## TL;DR

This paper investigates real-time digital video streaming using low-VHF frequencies on compact robots in complex environments, demonstrating improved reliability and quality in NLoS conditions due to favorable propagation characteristics.

## Contribution

It introduces a low-power low-VHF radio test-bed and provides empirical analysis of video streaming performance in realistic complex scenes, highlighting advantages over higher frequency systems.

## Key findings

- Low-VHF channels improve penetration and reduce fading in NLoS environments.
- Video streaming maintains high PSNR with minimal BER in complex scenes.
- Empirical results show near-ideal video quality in challenging environments.

## Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigation of real-time digital video streaming in physically complex Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLoS) channels using a low-power, low-VHF system integrated on a compact robotic platform. Reliable video streaming in NLoS channels over infrastructure-poor ad-hoc radio networks is challenging due to multipath and shadow fading. In this effort, we focus on exploiting the near-ground low-VHF channel which has been shown to have improved penetration, reduced fading, and lower power requirements (which is critical for autonomous agents with limited power) compared to higher frequencies. Specifically, we develop a compact, low-power, low-VHF radio test-bed enabled by recent advances in efficient miniature antennas and off-the-shelf software-defined radios. Our main goal is to carry out an empirical study in realistic environments of how the improved propagation conditions at low-VHF affect the reliability of video-streaming with constraints stemming from the limited available bandwidth with electrically small low-VHF antennas. We show quantitative performance analysis of video streaming from a robotic platform navigating inside a large occupied building received by a node located outdoors: bit error rate (BER) and channel-induced Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) degradation. The results show channel-effect-free-like video streaming with the low-VHF system in complex NLoS channels.