Case Study: MIT Robotics Team achieves resilient rover communications and 2nd place with Peplink SpeedFusion

MIT Robotics Team - Customer Case Study

MIT Robotics Team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faced a critical communications challenge while competing in NASA’s annual planetary rover competition: high-latency links and frequent signal dropouts that threatened rover control and hours of work. To build redundant, low‑latency connectivity they partnered with Peplink, deploying SpeedFusion technology and Peplink hardware (MAX HD2 and Balance 580) to bond multiple 4G LTE links into a single resilient connection.

Peplink implemented a SpeedFusion VPN across two 4G LTE connections, enabling packet‑level load balancing, seamless hot failover, persistent sessions, and the ability to split high‑bandwidth video across links. When a cellular dead spot degraded one link 40 minutes into the event, Peplink’s solution dropped the failing link without interrupting the connection and maintained operation on the remaining link—helping the MIT Robotics Team monitor performance in real time, speed development cycles, and ultimately secure a close second place.

MIT Robotics Team