Posted on 06/20/2025 7:35:39 PM PDT by fluorescence
An Army in-flight system that can detect when a pilot is incapacitated and get the aircraft back to base has passed a key test, giving the service a boost in its quest to develop autonomous technology.
The May test flight at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., paired a medical monitoring device similar to an EKG with an autopilot system in a UH-60 Black Hawk, an Army statement said.
A team from the service’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center used an armband to pick up medical distress from a pilot and safely return the Black Hawk to Felker Army Airfield, test pilot Lt. Col. Greg Sievers said in an interview earlier this month.
On May 1, the Black Hawk took off with Sievers, center test pilot Carl Ott and flight engineer James Carr for the 90-minute flight, according to the statement.
The medical device simulated incapacitation, and the autonomous system checked with the pilots for a response, Ott said. When no response was provided, the aircraft successfully returned to base without human assistance.
The Black Hawk was equipped with autonomous software that receives data from lidar sensors that can detect obstacles and scan landing areas, Ott said.
He added that pairing medical monitoring devices with aircraft controls for supervised autonomy is a requirement of the Army’s next-generation long-range assault aircraft program, which began in 2019 to find a tilt-rotor replacement for the Black Hawk.
The Army intends for the system to be available across all aviation platforms, Ott said.
For the test, which Sievers said was repeated twice with the same result, the autonomous flight system was switched on manually.
The service still needs to figure out when to have the autopilot mode automatically kick in on its own after recognizing that the human operator is unresponsive, Sievers said.
The project began late last year, when the Army Aeromedical Research Lab approached Florida-based Tiger Tech Solutions, a company that makes human performance and health monitoring wearables.
Tiger Tech’s armband sets a baseline of biomarkers for its wearer, from oxygen levels to temperature and heart rate, CEO Harrison Whittels said. It then can send a signal using Bluetooth to the aircraft indicating drastic changes or pilot distress.
“This has never been done in the history of aviation,” Whittels said. “This is the next frontier.”
Once the armband was ready, the lab approached the development command in March to plan the test. The technology is still in the early stages, with more tests of the autonomous system ahead.
But it could be a game-changer for saving lives and aircraft in future wars, said Col. Justin Highley, commander of the center’s Technology Development Directorate.
“At some point, the aircraft could essentially take over and then just come to a hover or go to a holding pattern, or you return to base,” Highley said. “We want to be able to integrate and test (these systems) and figure out what combination of technologies make the most sense to give to our warfighters.”
How long before our enemies figure out how to hack that system to take control of our aircraft?
I am going to have to say that if the system can take over control of a Blackhawk Helicopter and fly it back to Base then it should be able to fly any Aircraft of any Type.
That alone is impressive !!!
Tech War GFQ !!!
Just being on autopilot would seem to negate ability to evade threats.
Helicopters are levels of magnitude more complex than fixed-wing aircraft. So many more moving parts - this is an amazing feat.
Geez, this will never pass muster with the Freeper “all Federal workers were lazy and never produced anything of value” crowd.
Drones do it already. Flies back to base on its own.
Agreed !!!
Good point but isn’t it a bit more complicated to control a chopper ?
True - but if they can do that with a drone, it really doesn’t take much more engineering to apply it to a chopper or any plane for that fact. We already have ‘hands off’ landings where a plane is automatically landed without any pilot input.
My thoughts as well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.