DARPA's Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program has taken another step forward, with a US Army UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter taking to the air over Fort Campbell, Kentucky on February 5 for a 30-minute autonomous flight with no one aboard.
The flight last week, which was followed by a second 10-minute flight on February 7, was neither the first with ALIAS or with the system installed in a Sikorsky Black Hawk, but it was the most ambitious to date. It was the first flight with no one inside such a complicated aircraft that was controlled by the retrofitted Sikorsky MATRIX autonomy technology, which is the main component of ALIAS that transforms a conventional aircraft into an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV).
The helicopter performed a series of pedal maneuvers as it navigated a virtual obstacle course over the airfield during the recent flight, which appeared to be relatively simple. The drop-in, removable ALIAS, on the other hand, highlighted how near we are to fully autonomous flight today.
ALIAS turned the Black Hawk into a completely automated aircraft, taking over key pre-flight procedures like power, secondary control, wind checks, and adaptive flying elements like take off and landing, where most autonomous systems perform simple tasks and act as assistants to a human pilot who still has to deal with complex interfaces and unexpected situations. Even if both engines failed in the event of an emergency, such as a loss of power, the system would have found an adequate landing location and touched down.
#Military #Autopilot #Technology
Source: Newatlas
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