General Atomics flies UAS missions with AI pilots
GA-ASI's flights took advantage of its reinforcement learning architecture. (Photo: GA-ASI)
A GA-ASI-owned Avenger UAS was paired with a digital twin aircraft to conduct live, virtual, and constructive combat missions autonomously.
General Atomic Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has advanced its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) ecosystem by flying three missions with artificially intelligent (AI) pilots.
The flights took place on 14 December from GA-ASI’s Desert Horizons flight operations facility as a demonstration of its commitment to maturing the CCA ecosystem for Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) UAS using AI and Machine Learning (ML).
The flights took advantage of GA-ASI’s reinforcement learning (RL) architecture, with agents demonstrating single, multi and hierarchical behaviours.
The single-agent model navigated a live aircraft while avoiding threats. Multi-agent RL models flew a live and virtual Avenger UAS collaboratively to chase a target and avoid threats.
Finally, the hierarchical RL agent used sensor information to select courses of action based of its understanding of the environment.
GA-ASI said this demonstrated the AI pilot’s ability to process and act on real-time information independently of a human operator.
Related Equipment in Defence Insight
More from Uncrewed Vehicles
-
![Maris-Tech confirms customers signing up for Jupiter Drones codec and AI-powered system]()
Maris-Tech confirms customers signing up for Jupiter Drones codec and AI-powered system
Launched at AUSA in October, the company’s multi-stream video codec is attempting to bring a new lease of life to drone technology through its AI accelerator.
-
![AUSA 2024: Quantum-Systems targets big 2025 with UAS developments]()
AUSA 2024: Quantum-Systems targets big 2025 with UAS developments
Quantum-Systems has been upgrading its UAS family, with new versions of the Vector, Reliant and Twister drones set for release throughout 2025.
-
![US Army accelerates acquisition and field of company-level sUAS]()
US Army accelerates acquisition and field of company-level sUAS
The service has been using a Directed Requirement (DR) approach to speed up the deployment of a Medium Range Reconnaissance capability.
-
![AeroVironment to display eVTOL P550 at AUSA 2024]()
AeroVironment to display eVTOL P550 at AUSA 2024
AeroVironment’s portfolio will grow thanks to the eVTOL P550 aimed at battalion-level tactical forces.
-
![Australia’s air force aims its UAV fleet northwards]()
Australia’s air force aims its UAV fleet northwards
The Royal Australian Air Force is advancing its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capabilities across three key programmes as it works with the likes of Boeing and Northrop Grumman to reshape Australia’s defence strategy.
-
![FTUAS competitor trials were “very successful”, says US Army official]()
FTUAS competitor trials were “very successful”, says US Army official
Prototypes from Griffon Aerospace and Textron Systems recently passed through MOSA conformance trials and flight tests.
