Innovations & technologies

This DARPA program will give Army and Marine aviators a robot co-pilot

Army aviators recently ran helicopters through missions with a kind of robot co-pilot for the first time, using technology a company says will be demonstrated in coming months on Black Hawk helicopters.

The pilots directed an “optionally piloted helicopter” through mission scenarios ranging from obstacle avoidance to contour flight, according to a release.

The pilots used the technology to move a modified commercial helicopter, the S-76B Sikorsky, known as Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft or SARA, through the scenarios designed under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program with Lockheed Martin.

The automated capabilities are part of the Army’s larger Future Vertical Lift program, which aims to revolutionize how helicopters are employed by the services.

“Future vertical lift aircraft will require robust autonomous and optimally piloted systems to complete missions and improve safety,” said Chris Van Buiten, vice president of Sikorsky Innovations.

While personnel with the company have been developing and testing the technology for some time and flown more than 300 hours of autonomous flight, the Oct. 29 event at Fort Eustis, Virginia, was the first time non-company pilots operated the aircraft.