As part of the cooperation between Honeywell Aerospace and Shield AI, the autonomy development process, which was expected to take approximately 54 weeks, reached its first autonomous flight in six weeks using the Hivemind Enterprise platform.
Honeywell Aerospace and Shield AI announced that two aircraft powered by the Hivemind system conducted a coordinated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission near Phoenix. Honeywell’s autonomy team began training on Hivemind Enterprise at the end of April and flew the BFD-SE8 multirotor aircraft autonomously for the first time by mid-June.
Shield AI Vice President of Hivemind Enterprise Tom Schaefer stated that Hivemind Enterprise enabled Honeywell Aerospace to reduce an autonomy development process expected to take about a year to just a few weeks. Schaefer added that by handling core autonomy functions, the platform allowed the Honeywell team to focus on its target detection and tracking model.
Multi-Aircraft Coordination with Hivemind
During the three-month effort for the second demonstration, Honeywell Aerospace integrated its target detection and tracking model into the Hivemind system and conducted tests in Minnesota and Arizona. During a flight near Phoenix, the reconnaissance aircraft reportedly detected and tracked a target using its cameras and artificial intelligence model. Hivemind then transferred the target location to the second aircraft. The second aircraft autonomously proceeded to the target, released its payload and both aircraft returned to base at the end of the mission.
Honeywell Aerospace Senior Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer Todd Giles stated that open architectures are accelerating the pace of innovation in the aerospace sector, adding that combining capabilities in avionics, navigation, sensing and autonomy is creating a scalable foundation for next-generation autonomous aircraft and mission systems. Shield AI announced that Hivemind has been used on more than 40 platforms to date, including F-16s, jet-powered UAVs, helicopters, unmanned maritime and ground vehicles, and a satellite in low Earth orbit. The company had previously also been selected for the U.S. LUCAS kamikaze drone program.
In the next phase, efforts will focus on integrating Hivemind with Honeywell’s avionics, navigation and sensing systems. The system is also planned to be used on larger UAVs and in commercial aviation.
🔍 You may also like
Source: C4Defence – Shield AI
