Making sense out of chaotic skies
Feb. 18, 2025
Jamie Whitney
As the skies and battlefields grow increasingly crowded, the ability for crewed and uncrewed vehicles to avoid collisions and operate safely in dynamic environments has become a cornerstone of modern vehicle design. Detect-and-avoid systems are instrumental in operational success in military and commercial sectors on the ground, in the air, and at sea. These systems combine advanced sensors, embedded computing, and signal processing to provide real-time situational awareness and autonomous decision-making with and without people in-the-loop.
The rise of uncrewed vehicles has reached a stage where autonomous systems are replacing human operators, allowing machines to perform complex tasks independently. From underwater reconnaissance to aerial passenger transport and battlefield logistics, the potential applications for these autonomous vehicles are vast.
Artificial intelligence (AI) underpins vehicle autonomy, enabling operations across air, land, and sea with human safety and self-preservation in mind. While these systems are adept at navigating from Point A to Point B, challenges arise when unexpected obstacles appear. This begs the question: why shift decision-making from human operators to machines?
Humans possess extraordinary problem-solving abilities, driven by their capacity to innovate and use tools to alter their environment. Yet, for tasks like ensuring a drone avoids trees or enabling an unmanned ground vehicle to bypass obstacles, autonomy offers clear advantages.
https://www.militaryaerospace.com/computers/article/55262760/military-detect-and-avoid-technology
