Unmanned
Germany’s Hensoldt pushes drone collision-avoidance system under EU
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17 hours ago
Engineers expect to test their active electronically
scanning array radar in conjunction with an autopilot system during tests this
summer under an initiative led by the civilian German Aerospace Center, or DLR
in German. The goal is to determine how data picked up by the sensor in the
manned test aircraft’s nose cone can trigger the autopilot to initiate a
successful collision-avoidance sequence.
Such safety features are essential requirements for
integrating manned and unmanned flight in the same airspace — a stated goal of
new drone developments. Most notably, the European medium-altitude,
long-endurance, remotely piloted air system, dubbed Eurodrone for short, is slated to have a certification for civilian airspace
integration built in from the start.
Larger passenger aircraft use transponders to notify
others of their position, and collision-avoidance systems exist for cases in
which two aircraft with such equipment installed get too close to one another.
Dealing with aircraft, including drones, that lack these features remains an
unsolved problem.
Hensoldt is among a raft of European defense electronics companies participating in the European Detect and Avoid System, or EUDAAS, effort sponsored by the European Union. It belongs to a collection of mini-projects under the European Defence Industrial Development Programme, meant to push industry-driven approaches to Europe’s defense problems. While Swedish company Saab has the lead for EUDAAS, Hensoldt hopes its sensor components will be front and center when the project reaches the stage of initial test flights around 2023. That timeline roughly fits into the envisioned Eurodrone schedule, which expects to see a first flight of the aircraft two years or so later.
Nationally, Hensoldt’s work on a detect-and-avoid
system is sponsored by civilian agencies like DLR and the German economic
ministry. But there is a written agreement that any insights can flow toward
the German Defence Ministry’s acquisition arm, said Dietmar Klarer, the
company’s chief of radar concepts. “The applications really are very
intertwined,” he said in an interview.
One of the deliverables under the EUDAAS project is
hammering out standards for what happens in the final moments leading up to a
potential collision, Klarer explained. For example, to what extent can a
dodging sequence be automated, and when can human operators on the ground still
interfere in the process?
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