Case Study: West Virginia University Robotics achieves robust, redundant bonded cellular connectivity and a second‑place finish with Peplink SpeedFusion

West Virginia University Robotics - Customer Case Study

West Virginia University Robotics needed a lightweight, rugged, and fail‑safe network for their 2016 Mountaineer Mars Rover competing at NASA’s RASC‑AL Robo‑Ops. After a previous Wi‑Fi bridged cellular setup lost line‑of‑sight and bandwidth, the team selected Peplink hardware — mounting a Pepwave Max HD2 Mini (with SpeedFusion) on the rover and using a Balance 210 at mission control — to meet strict weight, durability, and redundancy requirements.

Peplink’s SpeedFusion bonding and Pepwave/Balance deployment let the team combine AT&T and Verizon links and tolerate a WAN fault without losing control of the rover. The solution delivered a 61% speed improvement in bonded tests, average speeds of 27.3 Mbps down and 11.1 Mbps up, and zero network failures during the event, helping West Virginia University Robotics finish second in the competition.

West Virginia University Robotics

Eric Loy

Team Captain