Navy Demonstrates Drone Landing on Pitching Ship Without GPS or a Pilot
PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) announced in October that it has proved an unmanned system can fly mission tasks and land aboard a Navy ship at sea without GPS or pilot control, using only the aircraft's own commercial-standard cameras, motion sensors and onboard software.
Guidance, navigation and control software developed by NAWCAD's maritime autonomous lab lets the aircraft recognize a ship's shape and visual cues through its camera — the way a human pilot would — while algorithms predict the deck's movements in real time for a smooth touchdown on a pitching vessel. Traditional shipboard recovery relies on multimillion-dollar radar systems, flight-deck recovery gear and ship modifications that can take months to install; the new approach replaces that hardware with a software upgrade and can support unmanned systems of all sizes, from small tactical quadcopters to large combat-class aircraft.
"In contested areas where satellites and communications are jammed, autonomy gives significant advantage to our sailors," said Rear Adm. Todd Evans, NAWCAD's commander. "Breakthroughs like this help us scale unmanned capability fast and affordably across a distributed fleet." Aerospace engineer Peter Arslanian added: "In a high-end maritime conflict, GPS is the first operational link an adversary attempts to sever." NAWCAD said the software is ready for operational testing on fleet platforms and is transitioning to the Navy's small tactical unmanned aircraft program, the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program and DARPA's EVADE project.
Source: U.S. Navy NAWCAD release, via Marine Log and MilitarySpot
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：与报道主题相关的资料照片。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons 开放授权。Photo: File photo, via Wikimedia Commons.
