HEADLINES
GE to test
trajectorybased
FMS
for UMS
As part of a new research
arrangement with the Federal
Aviation Administration, GE
Aviation will test a trajectorybased
flight management
system (FMS) for unmanned
aircraft systems in simulations
and in flight.
Simulations will take
place at the FAA’s William J.
Hughes Technical Center in
Atlantic City, New Jersey, from
this fall and will continue for
two years, according to GE.
The company’s participation
will include adapting its
Boeing 737 FMS to achieve
reliable trajectory-based control
of UAS and will include
demonstration flights of an
AAI Shadow UAS before
year’s end.
AAI has also signed a cooperative
research and development
agreement with the
FAA and GE that will include
simulations of the interaction
of manned and unmanned
aircraft in the US national
airspace system (NAS).
Work at the technical
center will also include UAS
pilot performance during both
normal and contingency operating
conditions as well as
workload, response during
unplanned events, interactions
with air traffic control
and human-machine interface
issues.
“Consideration must be
given to the latencies and
procedural accuracies associated
with the remote pilot
component of UAS performance,”
says the FAA. “The
performance baseline that is
established through these
activities will assist the FAA in
determining differences between
manned and unmanned
aircraft operations
and flight crews.”
8 | Flight Daily News | 12 August 2009
The Tardec Stryker can dictate movement in the field
General Dynamics Robotic
Systems demonstrated its vehicles’
lead-and-follow capabilities
to AUVSI show delegates at
Patuxent River NAS on Monday,
with one manned Stryker vehicle
dictating the movements of smaller
unmanned vehicles in front of
and behind it.
Through a program developed
with the Tank Automotive Research,
Development and Engineering
Center (TARDEC), Safe
Ops outfits optionally manned
tanks with electro-optical sensors
and a 360°, continually scanning
Lidar for the Future Combat Systems
program.
The purpose of the program,
according to General Dynamics
L-3 Link Simulation & Training
(booth 1000) is showcasing
Blue Box HD, a real-time network
service that supports distributed
virtual training or operations for
any platform.
The service provides training
realism and enables unprecedented
unmanned aircraft operational
Keep up to date with all the latest
developments in the unmanned
sector at flightglobal.com/uav
Lead-and-follow capability
is demonstrated by GD
program manager Eddie Mottern,
who was at the demonstration, is
to see if the vehicles can “safely
operate autonomously in a static
environment.”
“People get tired doing reconnaissance,”
he says. “Robots
don’t get tired.”
The system has been in development
for the past two years under
the program, which ends in January.
Under the next phase of development,
which is being handed
over to TARDEC’s Source program,
the company will be improving on
what they have already done, says
Mottern, including creating a longer
line of sight than the FCS sensor’s
current 280ft limitation.
In addition to the system’s pri-
situational awareness by augmenting
a platform’s inherent limitedfield-of-view
sensors with 360° of
high-fidelity virtual imagery.
Application updates, video
streaming, remote instructors or
observers and user portal customization
all can be controlled
to support specific user require-
mary use in robot convoys, the
vehicles are capable of detecting
and tracking human beings.
While they cannot determine
whether the detected person’s intentions
are malicious, Mottern
says the system can predict his or
her motion. The tracking capability
was developed by working
with human detection algorithms
created by the Army Research
Laboratory and rehashing them
into a different format to accept
new data. It is capable of human
tracking at up to 24kt.
The current system can run autonomously
for roughly 350–400
miles, depending on the terrain,
and the electronics will run for an
extra 90min.
Boxing clever with new L3 training system
ments. Blue Box provides realtime
services through use of
standard secure internet protocols
and plug-ins that allow for
access anywhere internet connection
exists. In supporting operations,
it is able to provide the unmanned
aircraft operator with a
complete view of the battlefield.
flightglobal.com/AUVSI
Billypix
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