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Autonomous Black Hawk Tests Aerial Firefighting Technologies
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company and Rain, a leader in the emerging firetech industry, demonstrated and tested autonomous wildfire suppression techniques on both propane and burning brush piles using Sikorsky’s optionally piloted MATRIX flight autonomy system layered with Rain’s wildfire suppression planning software. Performed in late April in Southern California, the flight tests familiarized firefighters with the potential of autonomy to help crewed and uncrewed firefighting helicopters find and suppress early-stage wildfires.
“Sikorsky and Rain have integrated two autonomy systems: our MATRIX technology that controls the flight of any crewed or uncrewed aircraft, and Rain’s wildfire mission autonomy system that finds and tracks the fire, develops a suppression plan, and navigates the aircraft to drop water onto the target,” said Sikorsky Vice President and General Manager Rich Benton, in a company news release. “With this layered autonomy system, incident commanders and pilots can choose a level of autonomy suitable for their mission, adding new features as they experience improved flight safety gains and enhanced suppression functionality.”
The autonomous wildfire suppression tests in late April were the first performed by Rain and Sikorsky in California over live fires in wildfire-prone terrain; at 3,300-ft altitude; sometimes in wind gusts up to 30 knots (35 mph). The tests were performed in close collaboration with firefighters from the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District, who built and set fire to multiple brush piles for the aircraft to find and suppress with water.
Autonomous Black Hawk Helicopter
Sikorsky’s autonomous Black Hawk helicopter is equipped with fly-by-wire flight controls, MATRIX flight autonomy, satellite datalink, and on-board thermal and vision cameras. MATRIX allows operators to choose between fully autonomous and piloted modes…