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Unmanned Aircraft Systems
(UAS)
Stemming from an AFRL, Air Vehicles Directorate sponsored SBIR program,
Guild developed a versatile, fully autonomous UAS. The system, now
Guild-coined Flying LOw Cost Swarming Sensors
(FLOCSS), was specifically developed to leverage the advantage of
numbers (e.g. multiple agents) to provide a more capable and scalable
solution to the general challenge of finding, identifying, and tracking
threats. Originally architected for WMD threats, to our knowledge,
FLOCSS is the only UAS specifically designed for this mission. WMD
threats are diverse in nature and particular sensor technologies offer
advantages in detection and identification of specific agents or
groups of agents (e.g. nerve agents, VOCs); therefore the system
features robust interfaces to support a wide range of WMD sensors such
as those for chemical agents, radiation, toxic industrial chemicals,
and biological agents. Additionally, the sensor payload and onboard
software system is configurable to support combinations of sensor
suites for dual use purposes. For example, chemical agent sensors
combined with EO/IR imaging sensors.
FLOCSS was designed from the ground up with a multi-agent mindset.
Consequently, the Guild team is focused on advancing and preserving
versatility and autonomy. These themes have translated into a robust
system architecture that enables it to be scalable from a single agent
to as many as 10, and can be operated as manually controlled UAVs to a
fully autonomous multi-UAV system with onboard sensor-driven autonomous
behavior. Autonomy is facilitated through a Linux-based, UAV-resident
mission management system that features an open and robust framework
for internally-developed algorithms as well as integration with
collaborator's or 3rd party software. When operated in high
autonomy mode the system has been demonstrated to significantly reduce
the operator burden associated with multi-UAV operations management.
Complementing these UAS capabilities is an intuitive Operator Interface
(OI), which functions as the gateway to the system's health status
updates, performance metrics and data presentation/visualization. The
OI provides a simulation interface for system behavior/algorithm
examination, while being architected to permit a nearly seamless
transition from simulation to actual flight. The system is also
designed so that it can be accessed through a secure IP connection,
providing multiple networking and interoperability options with
additional command and control systems. All this capability is offered
at a fraction of the cost of many existing UASs.
Guild has developed the FLOCSS system with versatility and autonomy in
mind. If you have an application that would greatly benefit from our
advancements in these areas or seek a collaborative arrangement, please
contact us. For information about using Guild's FLOCSS UAS for R&D
purposes, please see: US R&D. Visualizations of our cooperative behavior algorithms in simulation can be made available at: COMING SOON.
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