FARNBOROUGH, England,
July 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/
-- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) is partnering with Israel
Aerospace Industries (IAI) to jointly develop a sense-and-avoid
capability for IAI's Heron family of unmanned aerial systems
(UASs). Selected for funding from the Binational Industrial
Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation, the system will be
demonstrated for the first time on the Heron medium-altitude,
long-endurance (MALE) UAS platform in 2018. The team was selected
following a competitive review process that evaluated projects from
many companies.
"Sense-and-avoid solutions do not currently exist for UASs to
operate in a national civilian airspace. With more manned and
unmanned vehicles entering that airspace, the need for
sense-and-avoid is increasing," said Carey
Smith, president, Defense and Space, Honeywell Aerospace.
"We have decades of experience helping manned aircraft operate
safely around the world, and now we're applying that knowledge and
inventing new technologies and solutions to create a safer
airspace."
"Developing a sense-and-avoid system for our Heron UAS is a
significant step forward in integrating MALE UASs into civilian
airspace," said Joseph Weiss,
president and CEO, Israel Aerospace Industries. "This collaboration
demonstrates IAI's groundbreaking capabilities, innovation and
technological development once again. We're excited to work with
Honeywell, a leading company in avionics and safety systems, and
view this effort as the first step in a series of cooperative
efforts."
The demonstrations and flight tests planned for mid-2018 will be
conducted on the IAI Heron 1 UAS. The development work will be
executed in Albuquerque, New
Mexico; Minneapolis; and
Redmond, Washington, as well as in
Tel Aviv, Israel. Flight testing
will take place in Israeli airspace. Both companies plan for the
full sense-and-avoid solution to be integrated into the Heron
family of MALE UASs. In the near term, the work will set the
foundation for safe operation and integration of unmanned aircraft
in civilian airspace and will contribute to policies and procedures
allowing for certification of avionics and platform systems.
Honeywell and IAI Innovating for the Future
With the introduction of UASs in the national airspace,
Honeywell recognized the need for making the airspace safer.
Honeywell's development of a common sense-and-avoid system started
years ago to meet this anticipated need, and the concept continues
to be refined through flight test demonstrations.
The system concept includes Honeywell-developed software,
algorithms, hardware and the fusion of inputs from various sensors
embedded in a single prototype box or line-replaceable unit (LRU).
The LRU will be flight tested for the first time through the BIRD
program. It will show improved situational awareness through the
tracking of other nearby aircraft, allowing for IAI's collision
avoidance maneuvering logic to alert the UAS and suggest alternate
flight maneuvers, resulting in a safer airspace.
"With decades of experience providing the aerospace industry
with countless products focused on safety, Honeywell will leverage
this and its relationships with various OEMs and government
agencies to work with IAI through the BIRD Foundation and provide a
significant step forward in next-generation avionics solutions that
address the need for sense-and-avoid," said Smith.
"Integrating sense-and-avoid capabilities into UASs can offer
great potential and market growth, specifically in commercial
applications. Together our organizations will lead the way to
resolve an issue that impacts the entire aviation industry," added
Weiss.
The BIRD Foundation was established by the United States and Israel governments in 1977 to stimulate,
promote and support industrial research and development of mutual
benefit to both countries.
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