UAV updateU.S. Air Force wants mind reading aerial drones
The U.S. Air Force is currently working with several firms to develop aerial drones that have the ability to think and anticipate a controller’s actions before it occurs; the Air Force began exploring this capability in order to avoid collisions during takeoff and landings at busy airport terminals where both manned and unmanned planes launch; to address this problem, the Air Force awarded contracts to several firms to develop predictive software that can anticipate a pilot’s reaction if a drone is flying too closely
The U.S. Air Force is currently working with several firms to develop aerial drones that have the ability to think and anticipate a controller’s actions before it occurs.
The Air Force began exploring this capability in order to avoid collisions during takeoff and landings at busy airport terminals where both manned and unmanned planes launch. Unlike manned aircraft, drones are not able to make quick last minute course adjustments from air traffic controllers that human pilots can to avoid collisions.
To address this problem, the Air Force awarded contracts to several firms to develop predictive software that can anticipate a pilot’s reaction if a drone is flying too closely.
Last December Michigan based Soar Technologies was contracted to begin working on its “Schema Engine” that uses “memory management, pattern matching, and goal-based reasoning” to infer the intentions of nearby aircraft.
The Schema Engine will even be able to determine if a pilot is flying erratically or has lost control by using the engine’s “cognitive explanation mechanism.”
Eventually Soar hopes to create what it calls “Explanation, Schemas, and Prediction for Recognition of Intent in the Terminal Area of Operations,” or ESPRIT.
Stottler Henke Associates, a California based company, is working on a rival system. According to the company, its Intelligent Pilot Intent Analysis System will “represent and execute expert pilot reasoning processes to infer other pilots’ intents in the same way human pilots currently do.”
The company declined to provide further details, but did say that they were also actively seeking to weaponize the system. The company told the Air Force, “Many of the pilot intent analysis techniques described are also applicable for determining illegal intent and are therefore directly applicable to finding terrorists and smugglers.”
Stottler Henke was awarded a contract in January.
Meanwhile Barron Associates is also developing a similar system that relies on sensors in addition to algorithms to predict a pilot’s decisions.
