Honeywell (NYSE: HON) has partnered with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to jointly develop a sense-and-avoid capability for IAI´s Heron family of unmanned aerial systems (UASs), the company said.
Selected for funding from the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation, the system will be demonstrated for the first time on the Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAS platform in 2018.
The demonstrations and flight tests planned for mid-2018 will be conducted on the IAI Heron 1 UAS, with flight testing in Israeli airspace. Both companies plan for the full sense-and-avoid solution to be integrated into the Heron family of MALE UASs.
The system concept includes Honeywell-developed software, algorithms, hardware and the fusion of inputs from various sensors embedded in a single prototype box or line-replaceable unit (LRU). It will show improved situational awareness through the tracking of other nearby aircraft, allowing for IAI´s collision avoidance maneuvering logic to alert the UAS and suggest alternate flight maneuvers.
Honeywell is a diversified technology and manufacturing company offering aerospace products and services, control technologies, turbochargers and performance materials.
