The Transformer program aims to build a flying car for the battlefield. The aim is to create a vertical take-off and landing vehicle that can carry four people more than 250 miles on one tank of fuel (artist’s impression).
Transformer
The Transformer program aims to build a flying car for the battlefield. And the car will need to fly itself.
The aim is to create a vertical take-off-and-landing vehicle that can carry four people more than 250 miles on one tank of fuel.
Six contractors are working on the project, including Lockheed Martin, AAI Corp. and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
Sanjiv Singh, a CMU research professor of robotics, said: “In practical terms … the vehicle will need to be able to fly itself, or to fly with only minimal input from the operator. And this means that the vehicle has to be continuously aware of its environment and be able to automatically react in response to what it perceives.”
Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS)
The Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System program is developing binoculars that can identify threats from a long distance and then inform a soldier of the danger.
It will use wide-angle optics and digital imaging, but the really clever bit is its use of “cognitive visual processing algorithms” and “operator neural signature detection processing.” That means monitoring the subconscious patterns in a soldier’s brain to detect a threat the soldier has perceived before they are even consciously aware of it.
Nano Air Vehicle (NAV)
The Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program is developing a tiny, ultra-light air vehicle for indoor and outdoor military missions. The program has already produced an impressive prototype robotic hummingbird, complete with fast-flapping wings that let it hover and fly.
