Unmanned Vehicles
Raytheon developing UV swarm control tech
Raytheon’s BBN Technologies is developing technology to direct and control swarms of small UAS and UGVs, the company announced on 26 March.
The new technology is being developed under DARPA’s Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) programme. The technology will include a visual interface that allows ‘drag and drop’ creation and manipulation of drone tactics; a game-based simulator to evaluate those tactics; and a physical swarm testbed to perform live tactics evaluations.
The flexible, scalable programming software and simulation environment will enable users to coordinate UV behaviours in teams composed of different vehicle types that use various sensors.
DARPA is inviting organisations to participate in OFFSET as ‘sprinters’. Sprinters can create their own novel swarm tactics and the Raytheon BBN team will work with them to evaluate the tactics in simulation, and possibly field them for live trials.
Shane Clark, research scientist at BBN Technologies and principal investigator on the programme, said: ‘Operators use speech or gestures to control the swarm. This is a tremendous advantage during operations. The system provides sensor feeds and mission status indicators for complete situational awareness.’
More from Unmanned Vehicles
-
PREMIUM: CTTSO embraces counter-drone capabilities
Reporting to the US Assistant Secretary of Defense Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict (ASD SO/LIC), the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO) is tasked with identifying and developing ...
-
USMC orders Centaur UGVs from FLIR
FLIR Systems has received an $18.6 million contract for more than 140 Centaur UGVs for the USMC. The order has been secured as part of ...
-
UAV Navigation FCS integrated with Sky Power Engines
Spain-based UAV Navigation has teamed up with Germany’s Sky Power to design modernised flight control solutions (FCS). As a result, the FCS used by UAV ...
-
Boeing to deliver more MQ-25 refuelling UAS for USN
Boeing has been awarded a contract modification to provide three more MQ-25 unmanned refuelling aircraft for the USN, bringing the total order number to seven. ...
-
Greensea hull crawler tech combines with VideoRay ROV
Greensea has developed a new hull crawler that can be used to attach a ROV to the hull of a vessel without the use of ...
-
Lithuanian Navy to be equipped with new K-STER ROVs
The Lithuanian Navy is to be equipped with K-STER underwater ROVs from ECA Group for sea mine clearance. K-STER has been chosen for the same ...