Wed, Sep 13, 2006
Air Guard Technology Demonstrator Completes Phase One
Testing
Piasecki Aircraft, an
R&D company focusing on vertical lift aircraft technologies,
has completed phase one flight testing of its Air Guard Technology
Demonstrator from 6-8 September.
The Air Guard Technology Demonstrator is touted as "the world's
first autonomous autogyro." The autogyro aircraft, developed and
built by Piasecki, incorporates a
six-degrees-of-freedom flight control model from Georgia
Tech and an autonomy system from Geneva Aerospace.
The craft is controlled via the Unmanned Aerial System, a
control system utilizing a natural-language voice command and
response interface. With a hand-held "tablet" controller, a single
operator might direct multiple autonomous vehicles.
The test protocol demonstrated the following features:
- Multiple Autonomous Flights with Automatic Mission Planning and
Mission Management, Negotiated Interaction, Management by
Exception, and High Level Mission Plan Inputs
- Multiple Waypoint Navigation with Dynamic In-Flight Mission
Re-planning, Consisting of both Altitude and Airspeed Changes
- Racetrack and "Figure-8" Loiter Patterns
- Flight Controls Slaved to Sensor
- Remote Sensor Control from Ground Station/Tablet
- Persistent Stare Loitering - Vehicle Slaved to Sensor, Sensor
Locked to Target
- Simulated Loss and In-flight Reconnect of Data Communications
Link
Building on this successful flight test program, Piasecki will
continue expanding the flight envelope of the system, incorporating
Level V autonomous take-off and landing.
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