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First Autonomous UH-60A Black Hawk Flight. Leaves the tarmac on its first fully unmanned flight. Fort Campbell, KY Feb 8, 2022
- Thread starter dimsum
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How so?
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Just advancing the thought from Dimsum's comment.
A pilot commands/controls a craft - singular (air or sea).
An Air Traffic Controller controls a geographical space and the activity within it. The ATC indirectly controls the craft through the intervention of the pilots. But if there is no human in the loop between the ATC and the craft, and the ATC is directly commanding the craft, individually or as an entity .... is the ATC a pilot, a controller or a commander? For sure the ATC isn't a leader.
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If a swarm consisted of multiple RPAS, then there would be multiple pilots. If a swarm is AI enabled and truly autonomous, then there would be no pilots. Right? Am I missing something here?
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No. You're right. By definition a Remotely Piloted Aircraf System has a pilot. So an RPAS is a UAS but a UAS is not necessarily an RPAS.
A swarm? It could be made up of aircraft with onboard crew, remotely crewed aircraft, optionally crewed aircraft or AI aircraft. But what is the Swarm Master? Leader, commander or controller? Or just supervisor/inspector?
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I think I see what you're getting at. I don't see it as fundamentally that different. The ATC would simply be in communication with AI instead of a human pilot. If everything checked out, the AI would then complete the necessary intervention. You could even have an ATC AI interacting with the AI of the aerial craft via M2M datalink. That's a whole another can of worms, though.
And I'm in no way advocating for the replacement of pilots or human controllers. I wouldn't board an aircraft without a pilot present onboard, and human ATC in the loop.
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I'm inclined to agree with you. Although I have used SkyTrain in Vancouver.
As to Swarm Technology I am wondering what happens if, for example, swarm technology were applied to a bucket full of 70 mm rockets?
Swarms can be big or small.
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I was going to jump in but I agree with @blacktriangle 's examples.
I think terminology is the problem here - an ATC doesn't directly control anything, as in they don't physically make the aircraft do it. They give instructions to the pilot, which as the Aircraft Commander (the pilot, that is) can totally refuse. Of course, they have to have a good reason to do that.
As for what to call a person directly controlling a swarm of RPAS or UAS - probably "operator" is the best term. By that point, presumably you're not directly controlling how they physically fly but where to go and what to do.
I think terminology is the problem here - an ATC doesn't directly control anything, as in they don't physically make the aircraft do it. They give instructions to the pilot, which as the Aircraft Commander (the pilot, that is) can totally refuse. Of course, they have to have a good reason to do that.
As for what to call a person directly controlling a swarm of RPAS or UAS - probably "operator" is the best term. By that point, presumably you're not directly controlling how they physically fly but where to go and what to do.
Coordinated simultaneous attacks from different vectors, probably. I give it 5 years before it's a reality. Maybe less.
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Union rules: There will be a Higher rank along with the RPAS Pilot...
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Update on the autonomous Blackhawk
www.thedrive.com
Pilotless UH-60 Black Hawk Trialed In Recent U.S. Army Test
The pilotless UH-60 showed how the Army can perform autonomous resupply and that's just a taste of how it could be used in the future.
www.thedrive.com
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Was it programmed to tell everyone else how awesome it is, once it landed?Update on the autonomous Blackhawk
Pilotless UH-60 Black Hawk Trialed In Recent U.S. Army Test
The pilotless UH-60 showed how the Army can perform autonomous resupply and that's just a taste of how it could be used in the future.
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So far as you know…At least they wouldn’t have to worry about autonomous callsign review boards coming up with tone-deafeningly inappropriate call signs.
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...yet.At least they wouldn’t have to worry about autonomous callsign review boards coming up with tone-deafeningly inappropriate call signs.
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Nope.Is it wrong to place more trust in artificial intelligence behaving properly than human intelligence?
