94 December 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
TAKING A LOOK BEHIND THE HEADLINES
BYBY ROBERT BECKHUSEN ROBERT BECKHUSEN
XXXXXXXXX...
94 December 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT LINE
OF AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY
BY DAVID AXE
IN FUTURE, CREWS
COULD CONTROL
DRONES WITH
THEIR THOUGHTS
T
HE US DEFENSE Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) has tested
an implant that allows an operator
to simultaneously control, with their
mere thoughts, up to three unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The technology could one day lead to a direct
interface between human beings and UAVs.But full mind-control for drones is still a long
way o . Loosely controlling one small UAV is one
thing. Directly controlling several sophisticated
drones, with full two-way communication, is
quite another.
The mind-control trials took place in Pittsburgh
between June 2016 and January 2017, according
to DARPA. Using what the agency called a
‘bidirectional neural interface’, a volunteer named
Nathan Copeland was able to simultaneously
steer a simulated lead UAV and maintain
formation of two additional simulated aircraft
in a ight simulator, Tim Kilbride, a DARPA
spokesperson, told Combat Aircraft.
Copeland, who is partially paralyzed, never
actually steered a real drone using only his
thoughts. Instead, he channeled his thoughts
through a medical implant embedded in his skull,
which used electroencephalogram, or EEG, to
interface with a computer simulation of a drone
navigating an obstacle course, all while two
robotic wingmen trailed behind it.
‘Nathan’s task was to exercise vertical and lateral
control to y the lead aircraft through a series
of hoops positioned in the center of the screen,
while also maintaining/correcting the lateral
course of the two support aircraft through their
own hoops positioned in shifting locations at the
top of the screen’, Kilbride explained.
DARPA’s tech translates speci c thoughts into
code that a drone can understand. The drone in
turn can scan its environment, detect an obstacle
and alert the operator. The operator’s braintranslates the drone’s return signal as a ‘haptic
response’ — in other words, a strong feeling.
With today’s tech it’s only possible for a user to
vaguely communicate with one drone at a time.
And that’s not the only problem.
‘The big challenge is you’re talking about
interfacing with the human brain — that’s not a
trivial thing’, Bradley Greger, a neural engineer at
Arizona State University, told Combat Aircraft. ‘It’s a
big deal to implant something into the brain.’
DARPA is trying to minimize that risk. In
February 2016 the agency announced the rst
successful tests, on animals, of a tiny sensor that
travels through blood vessels, lodges in the brain
and records neural activity.
The so-called ‘stentrode’, a combination of stent
and electrode, could help researchers solve one
of the most vexing problems with human-drone
interfacing: how to insert a transmitter into
someone’s brain without also drilling a hole in
their head.
But even a non-invasive interface could run up
against a major obstacle. ‘The other big challenge
is the management and interpretation of the
huge amounts of information you get’, Greger
said. ‘You’d need a Google-level IT structure to
manage and process it.’
If and when it works reliably, the drone-brain
interface could have profound implications for
the world’s air forces. UAV crews would no longer
need to sit in trailers, stare at screens and operate
their machines using joysticks and keyboards. They
could just think. And their drones would obey.DARPA’s tech translates specifi c thoughts
into code that a drone can understand. The
drone in turn can scan its environment, detect an
obstacle and alert the o perator
Mind-control has been
tested in relation to
operating unmanned
aerial systems, and could
become increasingly
relevant in the future.
ANG/SrA Crystal Housman