autonomous airplane

MIT researchers have developed a groundbreaking technique to tackle complex stabilize-avoid problems, surpassing existing methods in safety and stability. By reframing the challenge as a constrained optimization problem and employing deep reinforcement learning algorithms, the researchers achieved a tenfold increase in stability while ensuring the agent avoids obstacles. 

Elbit Systems of Australia will provide the Australian Army with the Skylark I LEX Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) equipped with Electro Optical and Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) system.

At the Farnborough International Airshow Microsoft has announced Project AirSim, a platform running on Microsoft Azure to build, train and test autonomous aircraft through high-fidelity simulation. In realistic environments, AI models can run through millions of flights in seconds, learning how to react to countless variables much like they would in the physical world.

Silent Arrow announced that the company’s GD-2000 UAS platform was selected for a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Warfighter Lab Incentive Fund (WLIF) contract with a 12-month period of performance beginning in Q1 2022.

For the first time, the Civil Aviation Authority of the State of Israel (CAAI), that operates under the Israeli Ministry of Transport and Road Safety, has certified an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) for civil aviation, approving it to fly in civilian airspace as any other civilian airplane and not restricting its flight to segregated airspace. 

The DARPA Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program completed a first ever flight of a UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter without anyone onboard. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, completed 30-minutes of uninhabited flight with the optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) over the U.S. Army installation at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Later a second uninhabited flight was conducted.

Reliable Robotics, vendor of automated aircraft systems, announced the appointments of David DeRose as Director of Finance and Lee Tomlinson as Director of Operations to the company’s fully owned Part 135 airline subsidiary in preparation for commercial cargo flights. DeRose and Tomlinson join Jeff Drees, Director of Cargo Strategy, to begin cargo services this year.

Merlin Labs has reached an agreement with Ameriflight to equip the cargo airline’s fleet with autonomous and semi-autonomous flight capability. Ameriflight cites potential for enhanced safety, cost savings, and a solution to the pilot shortage.