There have been great strides in autonomous flight systems in recent years, but the tricky bit is getting them installed in conventional vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. In North Virginia, Aurora Flight Sciences announced it's using the technology from its Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS) to integrate the company's Tactical Autonomous Aerial Logistics System (TALOS) on a UH-1H helicopter as part of a program to produce a "platform agnostic" system that can be used on almost any VTOL aircraft to make it pilot optional.

The company sees the technology as having broad applications – not only in acting autonomously, but also as an electronic co-pilot to help pilots in difficult situations, including first responders operating on stormy nights or landing in debris-strewn area. In these situations, TALOS could alert the pilot to potential dangers in time to avoid them. Eventually, it could be used for medevac, fire fighting, oil platform work, business aviation, and agriculture, as well as for military applications.

"The arrival of a Huey as our third test platform frames a key point for future customers – the TALOS system is platform agnostic; you're not buying a new fleet of helicopters, you're buying a capability set for your current fleet," says John Wissler, Vice President of Aurora's R&D Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "TALOS is not an aircraft, nor is it a robot flying an aircraft – TALOS is transferable intelligence designed with both manned and unmanned aircraft requirements in mind. The value of TALOS can be described in a few words – platform agnostic, scalable autonomy, onboard sensing of the environment, and on-board intelligence that no other system in the world can provide."