Rajant Launches Credit Card-Sized Wireless Node

Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh wireless networks, has unveiled its new Cardinal BreadCrumb module at ProMat. The Cardinal is powerful, lightweight, and notably the smallest within Rajant’s portfolio of industrial wireless nodes. Orders for this first-ever BreadCrumb module specifically tailored to the needs of robotic automation in the warehouse market and Industry 4.0 will be taken starting next week.

Designed with automation robots in mind, including collaborative robots, automated storage/retrieval systems, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), unmanned guided vehicles (UGVs, and more, Rajant says the Cardinal can enhance your on-the-move connectivity in the most challenging environments. The Cardinal extends the range of traditional Wi-Fi past the limitations of fixed infrastructure with no line-of-sight requirements using two transceivers having a combined data rate of 1.73 Gbps. In addition to robotics and infrastructure in warehouse automation, this wireless node has applications as part of irrigation in agriculture, reclosers in energy, PLC controls in oil and gas, drone and UAV in the military and light show markets, and process automation in the manufacturing industry.

Rajant channel partner Gray Solutions’ Ale Walker, Director of Business Development, says: “Rajant’s latest release, the Cardinal, will transform how organisations think about lights-out operations. The Rajant Cardinal will provide connectivity between systems within a facility and will be a critical piece of infrastructure in manufacturing and warehousing across the globe. The benefits of having the Cardinal in facilities will not only enhance operations productivity and throughput within a plant but will always ensure connectivity between systems.

“The Cardinal gives the customer the confidence that its plant will stay connected regardless of the technology (robotics, AGVs, ASRs) deployed. Installing the Cardinal also provides the customer with the modularity and flexibility to scale up by deploying more systems without fear of lost connectivity in the plant and the ability to better respond to market trends, scale-up periods, and lights-out operations. Interrupted connectivity causes production disruptions, which leads to fewer products out the door, which means less profit and unhappy end users. Staying connected is one of the foundational pillars of manufacturing and warehousing worldwide.”

Rajant EVP of Sales and Marketing Geoff Smith adds to Walker’s comments: “Our latest industrial temperature IP40 dual radio BreadCrumb module is our smallest form factor to date focused on robotics that make Wi-Fi and LTE/5G better while enabling connectivity to billions of Wi-Fi IoT devices. Rajant provides extended range by supporting high-capacity M2M communications, which automatically works around physical and RF obstructions. We’ve been doing this for 21 years, so Rajant understands the requirements for secure critical communications.”