"AI is now dogfighting with fighter pilots in the air."

Well, that headline makes it sound like dogfighting exercises between human pilots and AI-piloted aircraft are happening now, but the article actually says, in a longwinded way, that this has been authorized and is something that should be happening soon. It has been done in simulation only so far.

The AI-piloted aircraft is the X-62A, a modified two-seat F-16D that was tested last year.

"The machine learning approach relies on analyzing historical data to make informed decisions for both present and future situations, often discovering insights that are imperceptible to humans or challenging to express through conventional rule-based languages. Machine learning is extraordinarily powerful in environments and situations where conditions fluctuate dynamically making it difficult to establish clear and robust rules."

"Enabling a pilot-optional aircraft like the X-62A to dogfight against a real human opponent who is making unknowable independent decisions is exactly the 'environments and situations' being referred to here. Mock engagements like this can be very dangerous even for the most highly trained pilots given their unpredictability."

"Trust in the ACE algorithms is set to be put to a significant test later this year when Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall gets into the cockpit for a test flight."

"I'm going to take a ride in an autonomously flown F-16 later this year. There will be a pilot with me who will just be watching, as I will be, as the autonomous technology works, and hopefully, neither he nor I will be needed to fly the airplane."

ACE stands for "Air Combat Evolution". It's a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program.

Article has lots of links to more information on AI in fighter jets.

#solidstatelife #ai #uavs

https://www.twz.com/air/ai-is-now-dogfighting-with-fighter-pilots-in-the-air

FlowState: The FPV Drone Documentary. FPV as in "first-person view". The out-of-body experience of being in a state of 'flow', one with your drone. Blow the video up to full screen and crank up the resolution... unless you're prone to motion sickness. Jaw-dropping footage of stunts in 3 dimensions around "bandos" (abandoned buildings), skyscrapers, parking garages, other urban structures, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, other natural scenery, skateboarders, mountain bikers, skiers, snowboarders, base jumpers, wing suit jumpers, etc, drift cars, and more. Delves into the hobbyist culture behind FPV. Shows drone racing. Explores the the worry that FAA "RemoteID" laws may bring an end to the hobby. Introduces you to all the key players in the FPV community, which is a smaller and more tight-knit community than you may have thought.

FlowState: The FPV Drone Documentary (Full Film Official Release) - Joshua Bardwell

#solidstatelife #inventions #uavs #drones #fpv

Anduril Industries announces Roadrunner and Roadrunner-M. This is an unmanned aerial vehicle that is a vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) vehicle that looks kind of like a stubby rocket with big fins. It uses twin turbojet engines. It's billed as an "interceptor" for ground defense against aircraft. There's a Roadrunner-M high-explosive interceptor variant. (Don't know what the "M" stands for -- "munitions" maybe?). It has it's own portable "hangar" that it launches from that is portable, so it can be launched from anywhere, controlled by one operator, and can come back and land when it is done with its mission and be reused for the next mission.

Anduril Industries is a company founded by Palmer Luckey, creator of the Oculus Rift and founder of Oculus VR, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014. Apparently the premise of the company is that Silicon Valley tech companies don't want to sell technology to the military, so Anduril was created to step in and fill that void and provide technology to the military that other Silicon Valley company are unwilling to sell. They already have a bunch of products which I never heard of, which are ALTIUS, Anvil, Dive-LD, Ghost, Fury, Menace, Sentry, WISP, and Lattice Command & Control.

ALTIUS (stands for Agile-Launched, Tactically-Integrated Unmanned System) is a drone that can be launched from a helicopter, as well as from the ground or naval ship, and can function as a loitering munition or perform other functions such as signals intelligence.

Anvil is a quadcopter designed to take out enemy drones. Basically by getting under them and whacking them from the bottom.

Dive-LD is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). It's designed for underwater reconnaissance, seafloor mapping, anti-mine operations, and anti-submarine warfare.

Ghost is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is not a quadcopter but uses a design more like traditional helicopters, and is designed for quiet flight. It's for reconnaissance missions. There's a new Ghost-X variant with upgraded propulsion, battery life, communications, multiple payload capability, and additional sensors.

Fury is a high-performance, high-end fighter jet, but unmanned. Can fly up to mach 0.95 and can pull 9 Gs.

Menace is, eh, it looks like one of those containers that you see on container ships & trains. But what it is is a rapidly deployable "expeditionary command, control, communications, and computing (C4)" station.

Sentry is a family of sensor towers. Anduril promises "edge" AI can deliver highly accurate awareness and identification of aircraft and other "objects of interest".

WISP (stands for Wide-Area Infrared System for Persistent Surveillance) is a rotating, 360-degree infrared sensor that uses AI for threat detection and situational awareness.

Lattice Command & Control is their software system for integrating information and controlling aerial vehicles. "Lattice uses technologies like sensor fusion, computer vision, edge computing, and machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect, track, and classify every object of interest in an operator's vicinity." See below for more on Lattice.

Anduril unveils Roadrunner & Roadrunner-M - Anduril Industries

#solidstatelife #ai #uavs #robotics #militaryai

"AutoFlight has achieved one of the world's longest eVTOL flight in history with a distance of 250 km (155 miles) on a single charge of the aircraft's lithium-ion batteries."

"AutoFlight's Prosperity aircraft uses rotors to lift the aircraft vertically for takeoff, then transitions to horizontal flight on the wing like a traditional airplane. The aircraft is capable of speeds in excess of 200 km/h, over a range greater than 250 km."

"A similar milestone was achieved by Joby Aviation in July 2021, when it covered a total flight distance of 154.6 statute mile at its electric flight base in Big Sur, California."

The aircraft was designed by a guy who made designs for Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren, and MINI, Frank Stephenson.

AutoFlight completes one of the world's longest eVTOL flights with its new Gen 4 aircraft

#uavs #evs #evtol

https://twitter.com/srchwng/status/1570694332558225408

#workshop #today #SAR #UAVs #Berlin

"Maple seeds inspire efficient spinning microdrone: a 50-gram samara drone can self-stabilize and hover for over 24 minutes." "Maple seed pods, also called samaras, are those things you see whirling down from maple trees in the fall, helicopter style. The seed pods are optimized for maximum air time through efficient rotating flight, thanks to an evolutionary design process that rewards the distance traveled from the parent tree, resulting in a relatively large wing with a high ratio of wing to payload."

"This particular design is symmetrical, using two sizable wings, each with a tip propeller. The electronics, battery, and payload are in the center, and flight consists of the entire vehicle spinning at about 200 rpm."

Maple seeds inspire efficient spinning microdrone

#solidstatelife #robotics #uavs

Drone that can fly in heavy rain. "You wouldn't want to fly most drones in a serious downpour, even most industrial-grade ones from DJI. Until today, DJI's state-of-the-art was the M300 RTK, a drone that took a barrage of water in marketing videos but where the fine print (PDF) says that snow and heavy rain are not OK for flying. But DJI's weather sealing and confidence rating have improved -- the new DJI M30 Enterprise, announced today, is explicitly ready for 'heavy rain, high winds, high altitudes, even in icy and snowy conditions from -20° C to 50° C.'"

DJI's newest drone can fly in heavy rain -- and has its own robotic dock

#uavs #dji