Ramona Adams
Lockheed Martin has demonstrated a range of autonomous and unmanned technologies for reporters at the company’s Grand Prairie, Texas-based Missiles and Fire Control facility.
The technologies include the Indago quadrotor unmanned aerial system, LM XE small UAS; Hydra Fusion Tools three-dimensional reconstruction software, Squad Mission Support System autonomous vehicle and Site Shuttle transport system, Lockheed said Tuesday.
Chris Van Buiten, vice president of Lockheed’s Sikorsky Innovations arm, said the company is focused on human-machine integration, autonomous systems control and “the intelligent interpretation of the physical world.”
Lockheed showcased the newest version of its Indago quadrotor dubbed Indago 3, which is designed to support military customers’ intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions through a 50-minute flight capacity, a range of approximately six miles and a cruise speed of 25 mph.
Indago is used in agriculture, disaster relief and inspections as well as efforts to locate at-risk individuals.
Hydra Fusion Tools works to construct a real-time 3D model of the area below during flight to support military operations, inspections, agriculture, disaster relief and other applications.
The SMSS vehicle is intended to provide unmanned transport and logistics support for light, early entry and special operations forces.
Site Shuttle builds on SMSS and is designed to transport employees around large industrial sites on a fully-automated basis.
LM XE is the commercial version of Lockheed’s Stalker XE drone and works to provide imaging support across a range of operational environments.
