The U.S. Air Force seeks technologies that could help a single operator manage a swarm of small unmanned aerial systems, Defense News reported Tuesday.
Col. Brandon Baker, chief of the Air Force’s remotely piloted aircraft capabilities division, told attendees of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference that artificial intelligence and autonomy technologies could support the orchestration of drone swarms in the future, Valerie Insinna wrote.
Baker said the Air Force wants to transition from a common ground station that operates a single aircraft to a command-and-control cell that could direct multiple sUAS platforms, Insinna reported.
The drone swarm can be controlled by one or two personnel — a mission commander to manage the swarm and an individual to oversee and address issues in the swarm’s network, platforms and sensors, according to Baker.
