Unmanned Aerial
Vehicle Ground
Control System
Software Development
The U.S. Army needed a mini unmanned aerial vehicle for backpack and scout force over-the-hill reconnaissance in day or night conditions
Also developed was a lightweight, portable, miniature, multipurpose ground control station as a command and control station for mission planning and video display.
The U.S. Army needed a mini unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for backpack and scout force over-the-hill reconnaissance in day or night conditions. This required a small UAV with a miniature flight management system containing the aircraft control operation.
Buster:
- A mini-UAV called Buster was developed by Mission Technologies Inc. (MITEX) that:
- Weighs less than 10 pounds
- Has folding wings with a 40-inch wingspan
- Has a range of greater than 10 kilometers
- Has a loiter speed of 35-45 knots
- Provides a fully autonomous flight with launcher take-off and parachute recovery
- Has an endurance of over 2 hours
- Uses a Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)-developed flight management system for aircraft control
Ground Control Station
Also developed was a lightweight, portable, miniature, multipurpose ground control station as a command and control station for mission planning and video display.
Also developed was a lightweight, portable, miniature, multipurpose ground control station (GCS) as a command and control station for mission planning and video display. The station is:
- Self-contained
- Battery-powered
- Daylight readable
- Used for both mission planning and mission deployment
SwRI selected commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, which included each of the following:
- Ruggedized laptop
- Commercial digital video recorder
- GPS receiver
- 900 MHx datalink
- C-BAND video receiver
- Commercially available ground control software package
SwRI integrated the COTS components into a briefcase-size case and provided a software link layer to communicate with the SwRI-developed airborne flight management system.
Related Terminology
aircraft engine performance • unmanned aerial vehicle • ground control station • Buster • mini UAV • miniature flight management system • aircraft control • aerospace engineering
