SIKORSKY/DARPA

Experimental Fly-By-Wire UH-60M Black Hawk To Become Autonomy Testbed

An experimental U.S. Army UH-60M helicopter with fly-by-wire flight controls is now set to get a ‘robotic brain’ that will allow it to operate with a high degree of autonomy with or without any humans on board. This is the latest development in a series of tests stretching back years now that has been steadily working on ever-greater pilot-optional capabilities for the Black Hawk family, which could also find their way onto other aircraft.

Sikorsky, now a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, announced the plan to add its MATRIX autonomy system onto the fly-by-wire UH-60M, also known as the MX, earlier today. The integration is being done under a $6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in cooperation with the Army. Sikorsky first began developing MATRIX in 2013 and then further evolved the system as part of DARPA’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program starting in 2014. The ALIAS/MATRIX autonomy package has already been demonstrated on a Sikorsky fly-by-wire pilot-optional UH-60A testbed, as well as an S-76 helicopter and a fixed-wing Cessna C-208 Caravan.

“As part of ALIAS in 2020, Sikorsky provided the hardware and engineering support to add fly-by-wire flight controls to the [UH-60M] MX aircraft,” according to a press release Lockheed Martin put out today. “When combined with the MATRIX autonomy system, the MX aircraft will be a near-exact copy of Sikorsky’s UH-60A fly-by-wire Optionally Piloted Black Hawk helicopter, the company’s flying lab that has tested MATRIX autonomy over hundreds of flight hours.”

“The [ALIAS/MATRIX equipped MX] aircraft will enable DEVCOM to explore and mature the practical applications and potential concept of operations of a scalable autonomy system,” the release adds. “Evaluation will include assessment of different sensor suites to perceive and avoid threats, obstacles and terrain, and develop standards and system specifications interfaced with the MATRIX system and a fly-by-wire flight control system.”

The integration of ALIAS/MATRIX onto the MX Black Hawk is set to be completed next year.

“We’re going to have a tablet. You push a button, and it’ll go through all the pre-flight checks, it’ll start, it’ll take off, and perform that [assigned] mission,” Dan Tenney, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development for Lockheed Martin for Rotary and Mission Systems, also said today in explaining the current capabilities of the ALIAS/MATRIX system. “And we’re not talking about remote control. We’re not talking about programmed waypoints. We’re actually talking about putting a mission into the aircraft and allowing it to perform. “

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