Sikorsky company held a demonstration of an unmanned helicopter with a man on board

SARA helicopter (Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft) based on the Sikorsky S-76 with autopilot Matrix Technology

Sikorsky is considered one of the world leaders in the development of unmanned helicopters. The created set of Matrix Technology systems has already reached such a level that during the year the company plans to integrate some functions into Black Hawk helicopters that it supplies to the army. As in cars, these functions allow you to remove some of the load from the pilot.

In the future, the autopilot helicopters are able to fulfill a peaceful mission - it will be a flying taxi. Many companies claim ambitions in this area, but Sikorsky, without loud announcements, has developed a fully functional autopilot, which is already operating. Recently, a SARA (Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft) robotic aircraft rolled a Wired journalist who shared his impressions .
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The event turned out to be quite boring: takeoff, freeze, turn, maneuvers around the airport, flight, landing at a specified point at a distance of about 16 km. The only unusual circumstance was that apart from the journalist there was no one in the booth at all. That is, the company Sikorsky conducted tests with a live passenger - and successfully.



In these tests, the external radio control was absolutely not involved, that is, the automatic helicopter systems performed 100% of the tasks independently. In addition to maneuvers, during the flight, they constantly scanned the surrounding area, fixing trees, power lines, birds, and other air transport.

However, it is unlikely that passenger traffic will be the first use of such an autopilot. In addition to military applications, there is an obvious range of industrial and commercial tasks, on which it is logical to focus in the first place. In fact, these are the tasks that multicopterers are now trying to solve with varying success. For example, the carriage of goods, patrolling of gas and oil pipelines, etc. An unmanned helicopter is much more functional than an ordinary multikopter. It can be used, for example, in search and rescue missions. And yes, sooner or later the technology still grows to the level of passenger traffic. The company Sikorsky, which Lockheed Martin acquired in 2015, recently officially announced that it is entering the race to develop an unmanned city taxi. According to the company, the Matrix system is already able to control flying cars, although in reality they do not yet exist.

Journalist Wired describes the flight from the point of view of the passenger. He was given a tablet, which in real time shows the location of the helicopter on satellite maps of Google Maps and offers several commands. You can load a prepared mission or simply specify a place on the map and enter your speed and altitude settings. The computer is located here in the cockpit, it is squeezed into the corner behind the pilot's seat and surrounded by a large number of test equipment. After receiving the destination, it calculates the best route. The passenger presses the button Execute - the helicopter takes off and goes on the route. Inertial guidance and GPS systems lead it in the air, and external sensors, including lidar and cameras, track obstacles. They are in constant search of potential landing sites if something goes wrong.

As in Tesla cars, to transfer control to yourself, you just need to start working with the control. In this case - if you take the helm, the autonomous system is turned off. When the pilot releases his hand, the computer takes control again. This is a two-way backup: the helicopter is always ready to take control of the pilot, and the pilot can always take control of the computer.

Especially for an inexperienced passenger-pilot, special controls are developed: two control interceptor inspectors on the sides of the seat. They are implemented approximately as in a computer game: the right joystick for horizontal movements (forward-backward, left-right), and the left lever is responsible for throttling and yawing (that is, rotation around its axis). For a non-professional, such a “game” control will seem simpler and clearer than the four standard controls in the pilot's seat.


During testing, the SARA helicopter (Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft) showed itself as a responsive and predictable machine. Easy to manage. If you go at low speed below five knots and release the steering wheel - the helicopter will freeze on the spot. If you go at a speed of more than five knots and let go of the steering wheel, SARA will continue to move in the same direction with the same speed.

The autopilot development program is headed by Igor Cherepinsky. In the commentary, Wired, he said that in the future the control system will be simplified, so that any housewife will be able to control the helicopter with ease. This will be true when air taxis start running around the cities.