Autonomy at Qinetiq

Qinetiq has successfully completed the world's first flight demonstration of a system capable of controlling and autonomously organising multiple unmanned aircraft.

The successful flight trial was conducted to support the concept of using a package of self-organising unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) under the control of an operator flying in a fast jet.

Central to the Qinetiq demonstration, undertaken as part of a Ministry of Defence funded programme, was a BAC1-11 twinjet aircraft that has been converted into a surrogate UAV. In addition to controlling the BAC1-11 'remotely', an operator directed a package of simulated UAVs at a strategic level and carried out a simulated ground attack on a moving target.

An autonomy computer using agent-based reasoning software in the surrogate UAV was responsible for the self-organising of the UAV package at a tactical level and the operation of communication systems, sensors and weapons. The trial is a world first in demonstrating such a complex system in flight which greatly reduces the workload of the human operator.