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The United States Air Force will evaluate cooperative flight
of several unmanned aircraft flying in constellation formation,
while simultaneously distributing sensor control and viewing
capability among multiple end users. The test will utilize the
SkyForce Distributed
Management System (DMS) developed by Proxy Aviation, controlling
SkyWatcher and SkyRaider
UAVs, also produced by Proxy.
The first phase of demonstrations took place early February
2007 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., where a single SkyWatcher
successfully demonstrated cooperative flight with three simulated
UAVs. SkyForce DMS is designed to control up to 12 fully autonomous
air vehicles engaging in concurrent, cooperative flight. The
system enables each vehicle to make fully independent decisions
during flight, contributing to the group tactical goal, without
any human intervention.
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In the first flight phase conducted at Eglin Test Range , a
single SkyWatcher UAV successfully demonstrated cooperative
flight with three simulated SkyWatchers, each UAV performing
a different role and operating a unique sensor package. The
cooperative constellation demonstrated adaptive autonomy using
SkyForce DMS and the Virtual Pilot capability that are key software
components of the SkyForce system. The single SkyWatcher flew
four simulated constellation maneuvers and autonomously operated
an onboard FLIR sensor, a thermal imaging and infrared camera,
while simultaneously maneuvering with the other three UAVs through
several operational scenarios.
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