has successfully demonstrated 7 UAS simultaneously taking off with its push button ‘remote launch’ technology, which allows a remote operator, virtually anywhere in the world, to be able to command a fleet of VTOL Fixed Wing UAS to take off and transition into individual or cooperative swarming missions.
Blue Bear Ghost UAS was used as part of this demonstration and comes in both a standard fixed fuselage configuration or equipped with a plug and play modular fuselage bay. Fitted with Blue Bear’s latest generation of avionics, plug and play open architectures and SmartConnect technology, the fully autonomous Ghost UAS is one of the most advanced small UAS in the world.
The modular architecture allows it to be easily fitted with one of the plug and play payloads from the growing ecosystem of payloads providers working with Blue Bear.
The modular payload bay is now being adapted for medical delivery applications, and the fully autonomous remote launch functionality makes the prospect of fully autonomous drone delivery and centralised command and control a clear reality.
Ian Williams-Wynn, MD said,
“Blue Bear can now retrofit its SmartConnect, open architectures, autopilots and other avionics to third party UAS, UGVs, USVs and UxVs to enable them to utilise the growing ecosystem of plug and play payloads, commanded by Blue Bear Centurion Command and Control software.
“This provides platform suppliers from air, land and maritime domains with the ability to plug their systems into any Blue Bear Centurion equipped system, providing the operator with a single command and control platform for all their multi-domain unmanned assets.”
The latest heterogeneous swarm was made up of five different types and sizes of fixed wing Blue Bear drones, including Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) fixed wing Ghost/Modular Ghost UAS, conventional fixed wing Red Kite UAS, conventional fixed wing Cobra UAS and smaller hand launched Flat Pack UAS.
Six different types of payload from five different companies were integrated into the swarm through Blue Bear plug and play open architectures and SmartConnectTM technology. Plextek DTS, IQHQ, Airbus, RFEL, Durham University, and Blue Bear all provided payloads and payload support.
The drones flew simultaneous Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) cooperative tasks, with Blue Bear collaborative autonomy ensuring they all contributed to overall mission goals.
Three operators in Blue Bear’s Mobile Mission Command System (MCCS) commanded the swarm of 20, whilst simultaneously handling different, collaborative payload analysis tasks.
Blue Bear’s Artificial Intelligence platform (BBAI) was running on a number of the UAS Swarm, and processing sensor data on the aircraft before sending only relevant data back to the ground, which helped further reduce the burden on the operator.
To help automatic deconfliction of BVLOS flights within the swarm, and to track the presence of any third party aircraft, Blue Bear Airspace Deconfliction Layer (ADL) technology was running in the background.
Throughout the two weeks of trials, Blue Bear regularly operated swarms of 10 to 14 collaborative UAS. The company flew more than 220 UAS sorties, building up to be able to operate a 20 UAS swarm. The trials concluded with a multi-vehicle ‘button click’ to launch simultaneous take off and mission deployment of four Ghost UAS in 30 knt winds.
Source: Press Release