SkyWatcher, SkyRaider UAVs Complete Series Of Tests
Unmanned aircraft systems developer Proxy Aviation Systems told
ANN this week the company won a contract with the United States Air
Force (USAF) to demonstrate the capabilities of its SkyForce
Distributed Management System (DMS).
The first phase of demonstrations took place on February 8-10 at
Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and the second phase is scheduled
for early May at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. Proxy Aviation's
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), SkyWatcher and SkyRaider, are being
used to complete the testing.
The demonstrations are intended to test the cooperative flight
of several unmanned aircraft flying in constellation formation,
while simultaneously distributing sensor control and viewing
capability among multiple end users.
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 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.
The SkyWatcher UAV is designed for medium-endurance
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, while
the SkyRaider UAV is designed to operate at higher speeds and
altitudes and carry special-purpose payloads. SkyWatcher and
SkyRaider are controlled using SkyForce DMS, Proxy's unmanned
aircraft system that performs group tactical goals to meet a wide
range of mission requirements.
SkyForce DMS consists of
Proxy's mission-oriented software system, a primary
mission-management ground control station and mobile ground control
user terminals. Together, these elements are designed to control up
to 12 fully autonomous air vehicles engaging in concurrent,
cooperative flight. With SkyForce DMS, each UAV has the ability to
make fully independent decisions during flight, contributing to the
group tactical goal, without any human intervention. This fact
makes it completely different from any UAV system on the market
today.
"I am very pleased by this week's live demonstration of Proxy
Aviation's SkyForce DMS at Eglin AFB," said Lt. Col. Kent Shin,
Assistant for Security Policy and Programs for the Secretary of the
Air Force. "Completing this phase is an important and positive step
in the project. I am looking forward to additional demonstrations
later this year where I can witness the full capabilities of the
system and the potential value it brings to combat situations."
Don Ryan, CEO, Proxy Aviation said, “We are encouraged by
the successful testing at Eglin and are eager to fully demonstrate
the highly advanced capabilities of SkyForce DMS for the United
States Air Force at Creech in May. With its unique virtual pilot
and distributed management architecture, SkyForce enables the
planning and launching of multiple UAVs, managed cooperatively, to
achieve group tactical goals in ISR and other missions.”
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