18 Jun 2007 | Ref. 176/2007
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An unmanned ground vehicle and aircraft in trials at Warton, UK
Samlesbury, United Kingdom. - Understanding of the benefits and safety autonomous systems can offer to serving soldiers has taken a step forward following a recent trial by BAE Systems’ engineers at the company’s Samlesbury facility in North West England.
During the trial specially converted aircraft made several passes over Samlesbury airfield, simulating an unmanned air vehicle, and identified a number of possible threats. The information was passed, via a common command and control system, to a ground vehicle, which autonomously planned and navigated a set of vantage points to confirm the existence and location of an ‘enemy’ and undertake battle damage assessment once the target had been engaged.
The exercise demonstrated the effective transition of common autonomous systems developed initially for unmanned aircraft onto a ground vehicle. Key technologies used in the trial included autonomous navigation, sense and avoidance, situational awareness systems and geolocation.
“The UK’s Defence Industrial Strategy identifies autonomous systems as a key sovereign capability and this work aims to develop a suite of autonomous technologies that can be readily transferred across aerial, naval and land based platforms,” said Andy Wright from the company’s Strategic Business Development team. “We employed an operational scenario as this allowed us to work against a realistic background, giving us scope to understand where autonomy will be a useful addition to frontline forces and where BAE Systems needs to focus its efforts to deliver the necessary technology.”
Wright also explained how BAE Systems defined their goals for autonomy: “We are looking to technologies that give platforms the ability to operate effectively either alone or together with reduced minimal command and interaction and adapt independently to changing, unpredictable and potentially hostile environments.
In addition to successfully migrating a range of systems and using a common command and control system, the trial has also helped the team identify further areas for development.
“This was about enhancing our understanding of autonomy and learning where we need to focus our development to deliver benefits to the armed forces,” continued Wright. “We can employ this learning to engage with our university partners, SMEs and our partners and bring the necessary technology into the programme.”
Further trials, which will build on the results of the Samlesbury exercise, are planned for later in the year.
“We will take our findings and drive our technology development accordingly, we can then use subsequent trials to assess our and refine our autonomous offering,” concluded Wright. “Our ultimate goal is to have a deep understanding of how autonomy can support the serving soldier and our research will inform developments in this area across the entire company.”
About BAE Systems
BAE Systems is a global defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With 88,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceeded £13.7 billion pounds sterling (US25.4 billion dollars) in 2006.
For further information please contact:
John Neilson, BAE Systems
Tel: + 44 (0) 1252 384795 Mob: + 44 (0)7802 337704
john.neilson@baesystems.com
Barney O’Kelly, BAE Systems
Tel: +44 (0) 1252 384717 Mob: +44 (0) 7803 667434
barney.okelly@baesystems.com
Issued by:
BAE Systems, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 6YU, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1252 384710 Fax: +44 (0) 1252 383947
www.baesystems.com
