GAITHERSBURG, Md. - The flight path of the prototype 2,000-pound UAV called Sky-Raider is controlled by cutting-edge virtual pilot software, designed to allow a single computer operator to control up to 12 airborne nodes and 30 more ground nodes, such as sensors, according to its maker, Proxy Aviation Systems.
The 20-foot-long aircraft can fly with or without an onboard pilot, fly autonomously or by pilot direction, carry 2,200 pounds of supplies and work in tandem with nearby UAVs and sensors - all controlled by a computer-operator/pilot at a ground station using a new software program to navigate, retask and laser-designate targets for other aircraft from a 15-inch computer screen.
Typically, each UAV is flown remotely by a pilot at an individual control station. The new software is intended to streamline and better coordinate UAV functions so that one operator can simultaneously control multiple UAVs and sensors.
"They use autonomy in the software to do the role that the pilot normally does. It has collision-avoidance and obstacle-avoidance algorithms. It does what you would expect a flight of pilots to do - aviate, navigate, communicate," said Jim Carter, director of business development for Proxy Aviation Systems. "They don't fly into no-fly zones. They can fly into formations and buddy lase for an aircraft."
SkyRaider, which is built with automatic takeoff and landing capabilities and equipped with algorithms for autonomous navigation, could be ready for service in about eight months, its makers say.
Proxy Aviation Systems has funded SkyRaider's development with internal funds and more than $14 million in government support, which includes recent funding from the U.S. Air Force.
During a simulated June 22 demonstration, a single computer screen displayed the flight path of four UAVs, each equipped with a range of sensors including electro-optical and infrared cameras, along with synthetic aperture radar, signals intelligence gear and ground-penetrating radar.
"We see this as an upgrade - going from one ground station for each aircraft to one ground station for two to 12 UAVs," Carter said. "The architecture would support that. We look at this as a paradigm breaker. You not only have the situational awareness, but we can get the software to interact - the air picture, the ground picture and the maritime system. We can extend the software to interact with other nodes such as unattended ground sensors."
The software is even being programmed to synchronize with ground-based Blue Force Tracking programs that use GPS technology to identify the locations of friendly military forces.
The virtual pilot software will enable interaction with other GPS or geo location nodes in the battlespace such as avoiding friendly air tracks, tethering to a Blue Force Track or simultaneous sensor view of a point of interest, Carter said. "If you have GPS positions, you can make any of these part of your mission scheme."
"We are planning to put in Blue Force Tracking that shows friendly positions," he added. "Those same algorithms we would use to avoid other aircraft. If you have GPS positions, you can make that part of your mission scheme."
A distinctive feature of the software is so-called "autotrack," in which an aircraft can be programmed to alter its flight path to follow direction from a sensor.
"If I have a truck that is going 60 mph down the road with an autotrack on it, the sensor is driving the flight path to keep that truck in the center of the field of view," Carter said.
One industry expert said this kind of technology will pave the way into the future for UAVs. "The chief of staff of the Air Force, Gen. [Norton] Schwartz, has talked about this. He thinks there is a future for control over multiple vehicles."
"What has to be associated with that is a higher degree of automation," the expert added. "It is not going to be one person directing each independent action of 12 UAVs. This is going to be much more interactive-type automation.
"The vehicles will talk to one another and make decisions based on intent communicated to them by the human operator. They will be more interactive and more in touch with one another with things like automatic avoidance and cooperative sensing."
The company also is planning a demonstration in coming weeks aimed at testing the computer program with two 40-pound ScanEagle UAVs. "There will be two live aircraft with a single ground station," Carter said. "You give them preprogrammed routes and you can redesignate who the leader is and who the follower is. You build the sensors based on the weapons it [the UAV] is carrying."
The autonomous navigation algorithms allow the aircraft to fly a starfish-type search pattern as opposed to a straight line. At any point, the computer operator can intervene and retask the aircraft.
"What we are being paid to demonstrate is that with [a] virtual pilot, now even small UAVs have the ability to exchange information with each other and the ground station," Carter said.
Another analyst said Proxy Aviation's incremental approach to testing may help the company achieve its goal.
"If you could do it, it would be good. Whether it can be done is a technological matter," said Tom Donnelly, a resident fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank. "It seems in principle as though it could be accomplished, but principle and practice are obviously two separate questions." ■
E-mail: kosborn@defensenews.com.
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