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Bell APT demonstrates detect and avoid flight

Photo credit: Bell Textron

Bell Textron’s Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) demonstrated a ground-based detect and avoid (DAA) flight, fulfilling an extension for its NASA Systems Integration and Operationalization (SIO) project. The demonstration showcased the aircraft’s ground radar system integration and capabilities when navigating airspace traffic and requirements, critical for future advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles.

The SIO demonstration executed a beyond visual line of sight mission in complex airspace using DAA technology for monitoring.

“Radar monitoring, whether airborne or ground-based, may become an important part of drone delivery, air taxi services, and other aspects of the ever-expanding AAM ecosystem,” says Matt Holvey, director, Bell’s Intelligent Systems.

Microsoft provided AirSim, a simulation tool for training autonomous systems, which gave Bell a digital twin to model the NASA SIO extension flight in the virtual world before flying. This allowed the team to conduct simulated real-world tests of the APT without safety risks and at a fraction of the cost and time needed.

Honeywell drone radar avoids collisions automatically

A drone piloted by the Honeywell IntuVue RDR-84K radar system repeatedly swerved around another drone in a series of tests that are key to the future of pilotless aviation.

The tests showed the radar can detect airborne traffic and decide autonomously on a course of action, taking over navigation and piloting an aircraft to safety using its onboard processor.

The technology could have far-ranging impacts on the future of flight – especially as advanced air mobility companies ready vehicles to enter increasingly crowded airspace.

The size of a paperback book and weighing less than 2 lb, the RDR-84K radar proved it can detect objects without transponders (non-cooperating traffic) during testing while mounted on helicopters and drones. The latest tests marked the first time it performed avoidance without human intervention.

Honeywell engineers flew two quadcopter drones directly at each other on autopilot, 300ft above the ground at a desert test site. In multiple flights with increasingly difficult encounters, the RDR-84K-equipped drone detected the other drone, calculated an avoidance maneuver, and took over navigation, flying left, right, up, down, or stopping midair. Once the danger of a collision passed, the radar released control of the drone, and the autopilot guided it back to its original course.

The radar can see targets at 3km using a system of overlapping electronically steered beams to increase accuracy and eliminate ground clutter. It can also map terrain, provide alternate navigation in the case of GPS failure, and act as a radar altimeter during landing.