The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency completed a demonstration of its new collaborative operations in denied environment system which enables drones to perform tasks in areas without communications systems and GPS.
DARPA said Friday it tested the CODE with six RQ-23 Tigershark unmanned aerial vehicles at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground.
Aside from working in a denied environment, the new system also enabled Uthe AVs to be controlled by a single person compared to traditional systems that require at least one operator per drone, according to Scott Wierzbanowski, program manager for CODE at the DARPA Tactical Technology Office.
The system allowed the Tigersharks to autonomously share information and collaborate even after operators lost communications with the UAVs.
“CODE can port into existing UAV systems and conduct collaborative operations,†Wierzbanowski said.
The demonstration used software and algorithms built by Raytheon and the White Force Network from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to create a live, virtual test environment. DARPA said it will transfer ownership of the system to the Naval Air Systems Command by late 2019.
