FAA to Imminently Vet Autonomous Flight System

Founded in 2017 by CEO Robert Rose and CTO Jureg Frefel for purpose of bringing safe, certified automation systems to commercial aviation, Mountain View, California-based Reliable Robotics made known that the certification plan for its autonomous flight system has been formally accepted by the FAA.

Subject system facilitates continuous autopilot engagement through all phases of aircraft operation—including taxi, takeoff, cruise, approach, and landing. The achievement heralds the advent of fully-automated aircraft.

Speaking to the subject of Reliable Robotics’s march to certification, former Rolls-Royce and Airbus executive Eric Schulz stated: “Reliable is the only company that has reached this critical point, positioning them as the clear front-runner in the FAA certification process for autonomous aircraft. Reliable’s automation system will make aviation even safer and provide more affordable air transportation for cargo and passengers anytime, anywhere.”

Reliable Robotics’s certification plan requires neither special conditions nor exemptions insomuch as it leverages extant regulations pertaining to normal and transport category aircraft. Company co-founder and CTO Jureg Frefel set forth: “This agreement concludes many years of effort with the FAA to rigorously determine how autonomous systems will be integrated into aircraft. Working within current rules enables us—and the FAA—to move faster and continue to improve the high levels of safety we have come to expect in aviation.”

Recently demonstrated within the contexts of U.S. Air Force and NASA flight-test campaigns, Reliable Robotics’s autonomous aircraft system comprises key technologies at once preclusive of common causes of aviation mishaps and beneficial to operational efficiency. Advanced, high-integrity navigation systems enable safe flight in lower-visibility weather conditions in the absence of costly ground infrastructure the likes of ILS and Microwave Landing Systems (MLS). The autonomous architecture’s always-on autopilot allows any aircraft to be piloted remotely with continuous, departure-gate-to-landing-gate engagement.

During USAF testing, Reliable Robotics’s remotely operated aircraft system successfully executed an end-to-end automated mission—including auto-taxi, auto-takeoff, climb-out and auto-landing. An onboard test-pilot monitored but took no active part in flying the test-aircraft.

Major Wesley Williams of Travis AFB’s Phoenix Spark Innovation Lab stated: "This signifies a historic milestone as an aircraft, under the guidance of Air Mobility Command airmen, autonomously taxied, took off, and landed at an AMC base for the first time. Today marked a truly historic day for the Air Force. This is how we win.”

Reliable Robotics co-founder and CEO Robert Rose remarked: ”We are incredibly grateful to our FAA partners for their engagement and thorough review of this system, and are excited about the safety benefits this technology will bring to aviation. Autonomy can and will be certified in the very near future, and this milestone is evidence that the United States and the FAA are going to be leading the way.”

FMI: https://reliable.co