By Evan Ackerman7 Dec 2015 21:30 GMTLockheed's Drones Cooperate to Autonomously Put Out Fires Photo: Lockheed Martin

Last year, Lockheed Martin demonstrated (semi) autonomous firefighting capabilities with an unmanned K-MAX cargo helicopter and a small quadrotor. There were still humans in the loop, though, and the whole test was carefully monitored to make sure that there were no conflicts with other aircraft in the area. Last month, Lockheed held another firefighting demo, this time with even more autonomy and real-time integration with air traffic control.

Usually, when big drones are doing big drone stuff, the Federal Aviation Administration sets up a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) around them, and air traffic control makes sure that no other aircraft get close. This is a good way of maintaining safety, but it’s super annoying for pilots, because it can turn straight line routes into slaloms. To be successful, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are going to have to learn how to play nice with other aircraft, and that means talking to air traffic control just like human pilots do.

Photo: Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin’s K-MAX unmanned helicopter and Stalker XE fixed-wing drone.

During Lockheed’s firefighting demo, both the K-MAX unmanned helicopter and Stalker XE fixed-wing drone used experimental UAS traffic management capabilities to maintain real-time communications with the local air traffic control system. This likely includes information like “here I am” and “here’s where I’d like to go,” along with an interactive component that allows the drones to respond to basic instructions from controllers.

For the actual firefighting part of the demo, the Stalker XE drone used its infrared camera to identify the fire, and then relayed its location to the autonomous K-MAX helicopter, which nailed the fire with a well-targeted water drop:

Fire spotting (and remote firefighting in general) is an excellent task for drones. It’s important to catch fires as soon as possible, since smaller fires are easier to manage, but the best we can do right now is to send out humans in light aircraft to wander around looking for smoke. Midsize fixed-wing drones could easily take over this task, covering enormous areas far more than humans can, equipped with dedicated fire spotting sensors to make them more effective as well. And since the drones would be operating only in remote areas, it wouldn’t be too much of a burden to our air traffic control infrastructure.

The Stalker XE can fly for 8 hours at a time, day and night and in all weather, and the K-MAX is also capable of anytime, all-weather operation, meaning that it could probably conduct water drops in the middle of a monsoon, if you wanted it to for some reason. But seriously, having robots like these available could mean that human firefighters on the ground get triple the amount of aerial support that they do now, relying on manned aircraft, which leads to fewer fires as well as increased safety for the people fighting them.

[ Lockheed Martin ]

洛克希德?馬丁公司的無人機能夠密切配合，自主撲滅火災

lockheed的無人機合作，自主提出fires照片：洛克希德馬丁

去年，洛克希德馬丁公司展示（半）自治消防能力無人K-MAX貨運直升機和小型旋翼。不過，在循環中仍然有人，而且整個測試被小心地監控，以確保在該區域冇有與其他飛機發生沖突。上個月，公司又舉行了消防演示，這一次甚至更多的自主權和實時空中交通控製一體化。

通常，當大飛機所做的大的無人機的東西，聯邦航空管理局建立了一個臨時飛行限製（TFR）在他們周圍，和空中交通控製，確保冇有其他飛機接近。這是保持安全的一個很好的方式，但它&rsquo；的超級討厭的飛行員，因為它可以把直線路線障礙滑雪賽。要想成功，無人飛機係統（UAS） ；要學會如何發揮好與其他飛機，這意味著在空中交通管製就像人類飛行員做。

photo：洛克希德馬丁martinlockheed &rsquo；的K-MAX無人直升機和固定翼無人機跟蹤Xe。

在洛克希德&rsquo；的消防演示的K-MAX無人直升機和固定翼無人機跟蹤氙實驗係統交通管理能力與當地的空中交通控製係統保持實時通信。這可能包括像“信息；我在這裏&rdquo；和&ldquo；這裏&rsquo；是我；我是想去，&rdquo；隨著交互式組件，允許無人機應對來自控製器基本指令。

的演示實際的消防部分，斯托克Xe的無人機使用紅外攝像頭識別火災，然後傳遞它的位置到自治K-MAX直升機，這把火一個針對性很強的水滴：< / P > < P > < / P >

飛火（和一般的遠程消防）是一個優秀的任務的無人機。它'；的抓火災盡快重要，因為較小的火災很容易管理，但我們現在能做的最好的是送了輕型飛機的人四處尋找煙。中型固定翼無人機可以很容易地接管這一任務，覆蓋大片地區遠遠超過人類，配備專用消防檢測傳感器，使他們更有效的為好。由於無人機將隻在偏遠地區工作，就&rsquo；不可太多我們的空中交通管製設施的負擔。

斯托克Xe能飛8個小時的時間，白天和黑夜，在所有天氣，和MAX也能隨時隨地，全天候運行，這意味著它可能會進行在季風中的水滴，如果你想要它因為某些原因。但是說真的，有這樣的機器人有可能意味著人類消防員在地麵上得到三空中支持的數量，現在他們做到了，依靠載人飛機，從而為人民而戰他們安全增加更少的火災。