The United States Air Force has selected Pittsburg-based RE2 Robotics to develop the Common Aircraft Retrofit for Novel Autonomous Control (CARNAC) robotic system, which will serve as “a drop-in robotic system to rapidly convert a variety of traditionally manned aircraft to robotically piloted, autonomous aircraft under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.”

The CARNAC robotic system, which will utilize existing aviation assets and advances in vehicle automation technologies during its development, will be used to operate the aircraft in a similar fashion to how a human pilot does, and there will not be any modifications required to the aircraft.

“By creating a drop-in robotic pilot, we have the ability to insert autonomy into and expand the capabilities of not only traditionally manned air vehicles, but ground and underwater vehicles as well,” says Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2 Robotics.

“This application will open up a whole new market for our mobile robotic manipulator systems.”

RE2 Robotics will demonstrate several different functionalities of the system during the program, including humanoid-like robotic manipulation capabilities, vision-based flight-status recognition and system architecture feasibility.

According to RE2 Robotics, the Department of Defense could benefit significantly from automation and autonomy, as they could “enhance system performance of existing platforms, reduce costs, and enable new missions and capabilities, especially with reduced human exposure to dangerous or life-threatening situations.”