
A Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) team has successfully demonstrated the first phase of flight test and integration of unmanned aircraft platforms with an autonomous mission control system.
Undertaken at an undisclosed location, the demonstration represents a significant milestone in a partnership between the university and Lockheed Martin that started earlier this year.
Warsaw University of Technology project leader and scientific manager professor Janusz Narkiewicz said: "This is an excellent opportunity for our students to collaborate with a global leader in aerospace engineering to develop complex control software.
"The project also integrates this control software onto multiple unmanned aircraft as part of a full flight test programme."
Initiated by Lockheed and the university in March 2014, the advanced applied research programme focuses on the field of integration between manned and unmanned airborne platform systems.
Principally staffed by university research students, the project seeks to optimise the performance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) when flying in fleets manned aircraft, in a bid to make the best use of available assets for any given mission.
The project focuses on advancing development, optimisation of multiple systems within aircraft and ground station networks, and enhancing capabilities by leveraging recent advancements in aircraft technologies. These include automated flight planning and coordinated search, locate and track missions across varied manned and unmanned platforms, UAS Vision reported.
Under the project, Lockheed will help in the enhanced development of the university’s unmanned airborne platform assets and simulation systems to support software development.
Apart from unmanned aircraft partnership, the company is also pursuing a number of opportunities to expand long-term partnerships with Polish industry in both the defence and security sectors.