Autonomous Control and Unmanned System Technology

Current technology has enabled the miniaturization of many sensors and processing components required to control autonomous systems. With this in mind, DTG engineers are constantly testing new, smaller components and integrating them into control systems. The team combines the use of Radio Control (RC) control with autonomous control to thoroughly and quickly test new control scenarios for air, land and sea vehicles.

The DTG is currently developing a “Reflexive Control System” for the US Air Force. This control system helps aircraft remain airborne during mid-air collisions. Unlike traditional control systems that rely on defining all vehicle states during all possible flight modes, the reflexive controller reacts instantaneously in a reactionary fashion—similar to removing your hand from a hot pan. This reaction allows for quicker responses and low computing requirements.

This technology is vital to creating unmanned system that can operate in dynamically changing environments. When vehicle are able to fly through cluttered environments quickly, they can provide covert information to soldiers in the field. Also, these vehicles can be used in humanitarian efforts such as border patrol, coal mine inspection, and crowd surveillance.

DTG engineers are studying in-flight MAV collisions in the VICON System. This allows researchers to correlated flight commands with vehicle motions—in real time. By comparing these results with collisions of agile animals, such as hawkmoths, DTG can design next-generation aircraft structures that are light weight and increase collision robustness.