Will development of good AI routines be beneficial for developing an UAV?

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by Valtyr

Being that I am trained to pilot (Small)Suav's myself I can tell you it would have to be some smart AI to do all the piloting. Whem the UAV is in the air for a routine patrol for example, often times you spot people or points of interest all of a sudden, sometimes you fly over a spot on a hunch. A AI could not react to a hunch because well, it doesn't have that capabilty. However UAV's can use waypoints and such to fly on autopilot, loiter and hold altidude. Forgive the horrible spelling, i'm writing this on my phone.

hiya Valtyr,

why are those unmanned drones not used more extensively in afghanistan ?

when you look at documentaries like "ross kemp in afghanisthan" (a brittish reporter with a camera crew embedded with UK troops), you can see the infantry soldiers are in constant danger of ambush, and once they engage the enemy it is a very defensive procedure for them where they call in artillery support from their fire bases or need to call in fast air to drop laser guided munitions on a specific building or suspected taliban position (with a high risk of friendly fire)

on the rare occasion those brittish troops were able to get a helicopter to provide support, the whole tactical situation changed and the engaged taliban stopped fighting to try and not attract attention to their position and suffer the wrath of a well armed attack helicopter (and there seemed to be a significant lack of availability in helicopters to provide support for infantry foot patrols)

it would seem to me that a handfull of armed drones (both as small armed planes or helicopters) accompanying those foot patrols would immediately significantly change the situation on the ground for the infantry soldiers and make them more effective and reduce casualties, but i never heard of any mention of them for use in those situations. it cant only be an issue of high cost, these same infantry men often seem to fire multiple javelin shoulder held missiles on a patrol (at 50.000 $ per unit i believe). using these armed drones in much higher numbers would seem to me to be the next level in fighting tools that a modern army needs

any thoughts why they are not yet used in high numbers in day to day ground operations like that ?

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by Skarphol

Weeelll, there isn't too much to talk about on this site anyway, reading the same repeated questions over and over again is boring and futile, and besides; there is a lot of people with insight into aviation hanging around here, so I gave it a go.l

dont pay any attention to the moaners, its an interesting topic

afaik the artificial intelligence routines used in autonomous unmanned vehicles are based on neural networks first studied in simple biological organisms/creatures, and trying to get an engineered robot to even replicate some of those basic behaviors is extremely complex

if you simply need a drone like that to map a certain area, it is not to difficult. the same principle is already used in agriculture where you can have farm equipment (like tractors, harvesters etc..) cover a particular field while guided by gps, and the equipment is fully controlled by an onboard computer, it is being used like that and does work well

the problem that arises with a drone having to move in 3 dimensional space (not that much harder) and that it has to analyse and "understand" what it sees and then respond to unpredictable events is the hard bit. to determine what events are a trigger is part of the problem, but the processes involved in the human brain assessing what it sees in similar situations is incredibly complex, and hard to copy effectively with artificial intelligence routines so far

[Bobb4]

Moaning has its virtues... It lets off steam.
However to your point why unmanned drones are not use more in patrol type engagements.
Logistics pure an simple.
Having a drone for every unit makes no sense and unlike a plane with a human element who can act on hunches a drone is just a flying camera with a few heat sensors.
What you saw in Ross Kemps Afganistan was war, pure and simple.
Having been in similiar situations however not with said armies, technology helps a lot but it is always the grunt on the ground that takes the objective.
As for operational budget, let's just say the grunt on the ground does not give a sh%t how much a javlin costs.
How much do you think it costs just to keep the fast movers on standby... $10 000 and when they unload a smart bomb, well add +/-$20.000 to the bill.

[KG26_Alpha]

UAV's can be more than just frontline recon & tac sits, they can do more logistics also in unfriendly areas.

From> Flight Global

The US Marine Corps has announced plans to audition multiple unmanned aircraft by next February to perform the resupply mission.

The solicitation released on 17 April by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) addresses one of the few airborne mission areas still not served by unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

The most likely competitors for the emerging mission area include the Lockheed Martin/Kaman unmanned K-MAX, Boeing Unmanned Little Bird, Boeing A160 Hummingbird and the Northrop Grumman RQ-8B Fire Scout.

Northrop Grumman RQ-8B Fire Scout
© Northrop Grumman
RQ-8B Fire Scout is a contender for a resupply mission

The MCWL will require the demonstrator aircraft to deliver between 4,535kg (10,000lb) and 9,070kg of cargo up to 150nm within a 24hr period. The aircraft should be able to hover in ground effect/hover out of ground effect at 3,658m (12,000ft), and fly with a full cargo load up to 4,572m.

The Lockheed/Kaman team confirms that it will respond to the MCWL offer. The team formed in early 2007 specifically to unlock the market for unmanned aerial resupply.

The team has acquired a total of three K-MAX and one Burro helicopters on the commercial market to adapt into unmanned demonstrators.Lockheed staged a demonstration of the unmanned K-MAX for the army last April at Fort Eustis, Virginia, carrying two sling loads weighing 680kg.

The same aircraft also demonstrated carrying 2722kg in November to a Marine audience at Quantico, Virginia. Although the USMC demonstration is moving forward, military officials remain skeptical about the concept of routine unmanned aerial re-supply.

Tim Owings, the army’s deputy UAS programme manager, told Flightglobal in February that unmanned aircraft would be an ideal solution to resupply troops in active combat.

However, Owings was still dubious that an unmanned aircraft could replace manned cargo helicopters for routine resupply missions. “You have to really make a case at that point of cost effectiveness, I believe,” Owings said. “I think the jury is still out on if that can be done or not.”