Self-flying Black Hawk and ROBOTANK collaborate for ground-air mission By Cheyenne Macdonald, Dailymail.com <http://dailymail.com/> , January 26, 2016
An autonomous helicopter and an unmanned vehicle teamed up for a ground-air mission to prove their potential capabilities on the battlefield
In the collaborative demonstration from Carnegie Mellon University and Sikorsky Aircraft, the self-flying Black Hawk helicopter picked up the ground vehicle and dropped it off at a location 12 miles away, to complete its own unmanned navigation.
The exercise proved the effectiveness of autonomous technology in collecting data on unknown or hazardous environments, which could prevent human exposure to contaminated areas.
The UH-60MU Black Hawk helicopter uses Sikorsky’s Matrix Technology to navigate through the air without a human pilot.
In the ground-air demonstration on October 27, the helicopter collaborated with CMU’s Land Tamer, a self-driving unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) developed by the National Robotics Engineering Center, to conduct ground surveillance.
The helicopter picked up the UGV and flew along a 12-mile route to the drop-off location, where the UGV went off to take environmental readings over a six-mile course.
The UGV uses elements of several NREC autonomous systems to ensure its capabilities in difficult environments, including onboard CBRN sensors – chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear.
These sensors allow the UGV to detect chemical, biological, and radiological hazards on the ground level.
Data can then be delivered back to the researchers at a remote ground station.
While the UGV can navigate autonomously, it was at times piloted remotely by human operators in order to further explore hazard sites.
Sikorsky and Carnegie Mellon’s NREC have worked for 19 months to prepare for the demonstration for the US Army Tank Automotive Research, development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), which took place at Sikorsky’s Development Flight Center, West Palm Beach, Fl.
The helicopter picked up the UGV and flew along a 12-mile route to the drop-off location, where the UGV went off to take environmental readings over a six-mile course. The UGV used onboard CBRN sensors – chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear - to detect hazards on the ground
‘The teaming of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles like what was demonstrated here has enormous potential to bring the future ground commander an adaptable, modular, responsive and smart capability that can evolve as quickly as needed to meet a constantly changing threat,’ said Dr. Paul Rogers, TARDEC director.
ARMY EXPERIMENTS WITH AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY
In recent months, the U.S. Army has tapped into autonomous technology to help prevent risks to human well-being from hazardous environments.
In the collaborative demonstration from Carnegie Mellon University and Sikorsky Aircraft, the self-flying Black Hawk helicopter worked with an unmanned ground vehicle to conduct a long-range mission, and sense dangers on the ground.
In December it was revealed that engineers in the U.S. Army's C-TEAM have been developing buggies that can drive unmanned into dangerous areas.
The vehicles can detect targets and engage with enemies, and complete tactical missions.
These buggies, MDARS, require little supervision from a commander, and relay communications from a video stream.
A new class of Laser Imagining and Detection Systems, LIDARS, would allow the vehicles to have look-ahead range, resolution, and scanning capabilities.
‘The cooperative effort between the Army labs, academia, and industry to bring solutions to the warfighter is exciting to see.’
The demonstration has proven that these technologies can successfully complete long-range autonomous missions, and collect important information on environmental conditions.
By sending unmanned vehicles to potentially hazardous areas to detect dangers first-hand, the Army could prevent risks to human well-being from exposure to chemical and radiological contamination.
Self-flying Black Hawk helicopter could keep soldiers safer