DARPA Successfully Tests Autonomous Helicopter

(Photo: DARPA) The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has brought the US military one step closer to flying helicopters without a pilot in the cockpit. The agency successfully tested a helicopter equipped with an experimental autonomous flight software this past weekend.

The test flight, which fell under the agency’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS), involved a UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter retrofitted with Sikorsky’s MATRIX technology, a core component of the program. DARPA defines MATRIX as a “tailorable, drop-in, removable kit” that can be added to many pre-existing aircraft without the steep expense of building a new, individualized autonomous system from scratch. Sikorsky (a Lockheed Martin subsidiary) conducted the 30-minute flight over the US Army installation at Fort Campbell, Kentucky on Saturday, with an additional uninhabited flight on Monday for good measure.

DARPA first tested MATRIX in March 2021, though the technology was too new back then to be used without a pilot on board. The flight—which consisted of autonomous take-off, landing and two simulated obstacle avoidance scenarios, all coordinated with a tablet—was a success, with little help needed from the supervising pilot. 

DARPA is known for exploring less conventional technologies, often conducting experiments that sound like they’ve been ripped from a 1980’s sci-fi novel. But the point of ALIAS isn’t to perform awe-inspiring, patriotism-inducing feats of science, despite what the agency’s track record may convey. DARPA hopes ALIAS will help reduce crew workloads while maintaining or improving safety, especially in conditions that lack sufficient visibility or communications. Eventually, the program will be able to support the execution of an entire mission from takeoff to landing, as well as autonomously address aircraft system failures during flight. 

“With ALIAS, the Army will have much more operational flexibility,” said Stuart Young, program manager at DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, in a statement. “This includes the ability to operate aircraft at all times of the day or night, with and without pilots, and in a variety of difficult conditions, such as contested, congested, and degraded visual environments.”

Thanks to the success of this test, DARPA now considers the retrofitted Black Hawk to be an “optionally piloted vehicle,” or OPV. DARPA plans to conduct the first test flight of a fly-by-wire M-model Black Hawk at Fort Eustis, Virginia later this month. 

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