AFRL Researchers Support UAV Tests

  • Published
  • By Air Vehicles Directorate
  • AFRL/VA
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  AFRL researchers provided technical and operational support to The Ohio State University's Collaborative Center of Control Science (CCCS) during unmanned air vehicle (UAV) flight tests.

The CCCS UAV flight tests will aid efforts to determine the usefulness of UAVs for future intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, as well as the most effective use of UAV resources in a cooperative environment.

The battlefield air targeting (BAT)-III UAV completed five successful flights during testing conducted at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.

BAT-III is a small, low-cost, autonomous UAV capable of delivering high-quality video telemetry to a ground station. The test effort enabled researchers to gather flight data for UAV modeling, while providing UAV operators the opportunity to gain experience in autonomous and manual landings.

Operators also gathered imaging data of test targets and tested the experimental ground station.

AFRL scientists provided safety and management oversight; the emergency remote control pilot; general assistance with the overall test activity; and technical development of the algorithms needed for UAV cooperation, which is yet to be tested. Additional testing is scheduled for the spring and will include flight tests of multiple UAVs.