What's next for the Pentagon after the Replicator programme?
Although the Replicator initiative has made several accomplishments, there are still multiple gaps to plug across the US Department of Defense (DoD) and its services.
Perched landing fixed-wing UAS in development
BMT Defence Services has developed a new UAS designed to perform perched landings using machine learning algorithms. The UAS has been developed in partnership with the University of Bristol.
The university and BMT have demonstrated how the combination of a morphing wing UAS and machine learning algorithms can be used to generate a trajectory to perform a perched landing on the ground. The UAS has been tested at altitude to validate the approach and work is now progressing on the development of a system that can perform repeatable ground landings.
The prime focus of the project has been to overcome the restrictive flight of current UAS due to their fixed and rigid wings - which reduces the flexibility in how they can fly - to extend their operation by introducing morphing wing structures inspired by those found in birds.
The 18-month research project was delivered as part of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s Autonomous Systems Underpinning Research programme.
Simon Luck, head of information services and information assurance at BMT Defence Services, said: ‘Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at BMT and research and development projects provide us with the opportunity to work with our partners to develop cutting edge capabilities that have the potential to revolutionise the way we gather information.’
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