By Clay Dillow Posted 07.09.2012 at 11:29 am 5 Comments

The Army's Ground-Based Sense And Avoid System, Graphically U.S. Army via MSNBC

Back in February Congress directed the Federal Aviation Administration to fast-track the integration of unmanned aerial systems into the U.S. national airspace, but it didn’t tell the FAA how exactly to do this. To fly unmanned drones in shared airspace with conventional manned aircraft (or with other drones) is dangerous without a means for planes to know where other aircraft--manned and unmanned--are. Termed “sense and avoid” (or “see and avoid”) this technology is a key but difficult piece of our drone-enabled future, and the Army just took some huge steps toward making it a reality.

The Army just wrapped a two-week trial of its Ground-Based Sense and Avoid system (GBSAA), and the results were overwhelmingly positive. There are two ways to accomplish sense and avoid: either imbue every aircraft with the sensor technology or the autonomous smarts to know when it comes into close proximity with another aircraft, or create a ground-based system that acts as a kind of automated air traffic controller for drones, notifying UAVs and their pilots when they are on dangerous paths, prompting them to alter courses.

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Technology, Clay Dillow, army, aviation, drones, military, robots, sense and avoid
The Army has been testing the latter for use around its domestic bases via a series of “vignettes” in which it used live Shadow unmanned aircraft to demonstrate the viability of their system. In each trial, an aircraft under control by the GBSAA was threatened by an “intruder” aircraft entering the airspace. In each scenario, the system was able to recognize the potential danger in plenty of time and divert the drone under its supervision to a new path out of harm’s way.

For the Army, the system paves the way for fielding the system starting in March of 2014 at five bases, including Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Bragg in North Carolina. But in the larger domestic drone story, the milestone is significant as well. Functional sense and avoid systems have been a major obstacle in the path toward integration of unmanned systems into conventional airspace, and the lack of them is one reason large drones can currently only be flown with special permission from the FAA. If the Army’s sense and avoid algorithms are good enough to pass muster, civilian equivalents can’t be too far behind.

[MSNBC]

5 Comments

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Robot
07/09/12 at 11:56 am

If you take into account the NSA minotoring all communications through out the world, of the guilty and innocent and having drones monitoring the american public as well, with or without a court order, it all just adds up to CREEPY EVASTIVE INTRUDING GOVERNEMENT.

www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

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bildan
07/09/12 at 1:19 pm

Not only are they an invasion of privacy, they're dangerous. I simply don't believe the people saying, "Don't worry, it'll be safe". These are the same people who said nuclear weapons testing and agent orange were safe.

There will be crashes into populated areas and mid-air collisions with airplanes. Drones can and will be hacked for nefarious purposes.

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Robot
07/09/12 at 1:35 pm

These flying Drones on USA soil are government sanction and approval stalking of the USA Free Innocent American Citizen. These drones are not searching the skies for another country attacking us, they are searching the ground, to probe the actions of USA citizens.

Once the government launches these aerial drones, all other electronic snooping of your life is approved too, which takes you back Utah NSA Data Center, above link article.

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ender7718

from Wilmington, NC

07/09/12 at 1:38 pm

the first person to shoot down a drone over their private property will be an american hero.

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Robot
07/10/12 at 8:20 am

What is most interesting about these drones over USA soil and the NSA Utah data snooping center, they have and will cost extreme millions of dollars, the decision to build them is decided and our government of all parties are for it for the long run too. All the anti terriost laws they were created to fight terriost and undermine US American citizens rights have been written, estalbish set in stone. The war against Iraq and Afghanistan is over, but the laws removing our freedom and indivual rights as US American citizens continued without a question from our government. There goes US American citizens rigths down the toilet every so passively....

Over all, it just so strange and bizzare?! What I state is easily found and proven.


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