The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the Air Vehicle Intelligence and Autonomy Lab at Pennsylvania State University successfully have completed testing of cooperative autonomous soaring algorithms used to keep sail planes a loft for a sustained flight. During the weeks of Sept. 28 and Oct. 26, the team launched 23 flights, resulting in more than 30 hours of combined flight time. The tests were conducted within restricted airspace at Phillips Army Airfield, Aberdeen Proving Grounds. The tests concluded with two powered sailplanes sharing telemetry data and cooperatively and autonomously soaring at altitudes of more than one kilometer and for flight durations of more than five hours, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory news release said. The NRL’s autonomous soaring algorithm called Autonomous Locator of Thermals (ALOFT) guided the laboratory’s aircraft while the AutoSOAR autonomous soaring algorithm guided Pennsylvania State University aircraft, onboard. The NRL developed the ALOFT and AVIA, drawing inspiration from NRL’s ALOFT techniques. Find more informations in the online-report of uasmagazine.com.
