commercial building or urban area in order to use multiple unmanned aircraft systems as a problem-solver, said Tom Rice, technology lead for the Collaborative Autonomous Systems Laboratory. The lab’s motion capture system covers 80,000 cubic feet (7,400 cubic meters). Protective netting separates the flight area from operators and observers. “We can make it anything we want it to be,” Rice said. “A lot of groups are looking at the lab to see what we can do to help their programs.” The lab team will seek ways to effectively use multiple unmanned vehicles, rather than just one, to perform complex tasks and prove they can operate safely together, Abraham said. Engineers can test with different payloads, adding an engine or a sensor. The lab might put an unmanned aircraft system through a simulated event to survey a natural disaster site and offer guidance to a ground robot that will shut off a gas valve. Or it might have two machines enter a mock battle zone to see how one could serve as a decoy while the other collects intelligence for ground forces, effectively reducing risk for a warfighter. “Think of it as a loyal wingman, as the forward eyes into a fight,” Rice said of the vehicle. Customers can bring their unmanned aircraft systems to the autonomous lab to perform specific tasks and have them evaluated for performance. They can avoid delays that crop up during outdoor testing where equipment repeatedly has to be set up and dismantled because of inclement weather; the lab affords unmanned systems the ability to be tested for long periods of time without interruption, saving significant time and cost, Rice said. The lab also could be used to help tie together something as intricate as a sea-to-space autonomous network, a concept bridging marine surveillance systems with unmanned aircraft systems, said Egan Greenstein, Boeing director of autonomous maritime systems. “We have amazing capabilities so few people realize,” Greenstein said 32 | BOEING FRONTIERS
Frontiers December 2016 Issue
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