Black Hawk Goes Solo
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Black Hawk Goes Solo
Defense News: Black Hawk Goes Solo
On Nov. 5, the U.S. Army managed to fly a Black Hawk helicopter around the Diablo Range in California for two hours with no pilot at the controls — marking the first time that a Black Hawk had flown autonomously.
The service’s Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) said that the chopper showed that it was capable of obstacle field navigation and safe landing area determination, while its ability to sense and respond to the terrain, conduct statistical processing, risk assessment, threat avoidance, trajectory generation, and autonomous flight control all passed the test. “This was the first time terrain-aware autonomy has been achieved on a Black Hawk,” said Lt. Col. Carl Ott, Chief of the Flight Projects Office at AMRDEC’s Aeroflightdynamics Directorate said in a release.
The JUH-60A Black Hawk was equipped with a 3D-LZ LADAR for terrain sensing, and “a risk-minimizing algorithm was used to compute and command a safe trajectory continuously throughout 23 miles of rugged terrain in a single flight, at an average speed of 40 knots,” Matthew Whalley, the Autonomous Rotorcraft Project lead added. The aircraft kept up a steady altitude of 200 and 400 feet above ground level during the test, while the onboard software was able to find a safe landing spot within a forest clearing, hitting its target within one foot accuracy.
On Nov. 5, the U.S. Army managed to fly a Black Hawk helicopter around the Diablo Range in California for two hours with no pilot at the controls — marking the first time that a Black Hawk had flown autonomously.
The service’s Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) said that the chopper showed that it was capable of obstacle field navigation and safe landing area determination, while its ability to sense and respond to the terrain, conduct statistical processing, risk assessment, threat avoidance, trajectory generation, and autonomous flight control all passed the test. “This was the first time terrain-aware autonomy has been achieved on a Black Hawk,” said Lt. Col. Carl Ott, Chief of the Flight Projects Office at AMRDEC’s Aeroflightdynamics Directorate said in a release.
The JUH-60A Black Hawk was equipped with a 3D-LZ LADAR for terrain sensing, and “a risk-minimizing algorithm was used to compute and command a safe trajectory continuously throughout 23 miles of rugged terrain in a single flight, at an average speed of 40 knots,” Matthew Whalley, the Autonomous Rotorcraft Project lead added. The aircraft kept up a steady altitude of 200 and 400 feet above ground level during the test, while the onboard software was able to find a safe landing spot within a forest clearing, hitting its target within one foot accuracy.
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: India
Age: 48
Posts: 74
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Good progress for industry... but are we any time in future going to have pilot less helicopters taking on missions that involve decision making, inching to the limits of aircraft envelope, considering factors that may not be put into an algorithm for reasons of their subjectivity etc...
Pilot less machines have limited employability restricted to scientific experiments (not related to aerodynamic stability and control, performance etc) and may be considered as an extension of robotic league in aerospace.
Well ... at least lets start arguing now......
Pilot less machines have limited employability restricted to scientific experiments (not related to aerodynamic stability and control, performance etc) and may be considered as an extension of robotic league in aerospace.
Well ... at least lets start arguing now......
