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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 95 - Salt Lake City - March 2005
Agenda Location	6 SUBCOMMITTEE D - DYNAMICS, COMPUTATIONS 6.1 Transatlantic Autonomous Flight of Aerosonde Laima
Title	Transatlantic Autonomous Flight of Aerosonde Laima
Presenter	Juris Vagners
Affiliation	University of Washington
Available Downloads*	presentation video1 video2
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Abstract	In this talk, we present an overview of the development of a class of miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), called Aerosondes, intended for weather data gathering in remote regions, such as over the Northeast Pacific ocean. Development started in 1991 and the enabling technology was the availability of small, low power consumption GPS units. Initial development proceeded sporadically, with flight testing at various locations around the globe. By 1998, testing had shown that the UAVs could survive severe winds, rain and icing conditions and we were ready to demonstrate significant long range performance. The decision was made to cross the North Atlantic following aviation pioneers Alcock and Brown. The decision was made with some trepidation, since we did not have satellite communications, so no contact would be possible with the vehicle en-route. Nevertheless, after negotiations with various authorities, we went to launch from Bell Island, Newfoundland, with the destination at Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. The first two attempts failed, but success was achieved with the third vehicle. Ron Bennett Photo The Aerosonde Laima lifts out of her cartop launch cradle on Bell Island, Newfoundland, 7:29 local time on 20 August 1998. Through a stormy night over the Atlantic she was guided by the old-world luck of her namesake (pronounced "Lye-mah"), the ancient Latvian deity of good fortune, and the new-age technology of GPS. After 26 hr 45 min she plopped down in a meadow on South Uist, off the Scottish coast, and so became the first unmanned aircraft - and, at only 13 kg gross weight, by far the smallest aircraft - ever to have crossed the Atlantic. The flight covered 3270 km and consumed 4 kg (~1 ½ gal) of aviation gasoline. This marked a milestone in the evolution of autonomous flight and encouraged further development of this miniature class of UAVs. Motivated by opportunities in field other than weather recon (not to mention that there was limited funding interest from weather services!), development at The Insitu Group focused on a new generation of UAVs, the Seascan. Primary applications for the vehicle were in ISR, whether in the commercial or the military sector. The distinguishing features for the Seascan were the development of an inertially stabilized video camera and a patented landing system, the Skyhook. The Skyhook allows the Seascan to operate anywhere on land as well as off of small boats, such as fishing vessels. Further advances in differential GPS allow autonomous landing of the Seascan by capturing the Skyhook line, even at night. The camera system allows covert surveillance and tracking of targets, and we show typical examples of this performance in the talk. The military version of the Seascan, called the ScanEagle, has been deployed to support the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, where extensive operational hours are being accumulated. On the civilian side, the vision of weather recon still is alive and well. Ohter variants of the UAV are being developed for magnetic anomaly mapping. Development of more extensive autonomous capabilities is continuing to reduce operator workload and to exploit potential benefits of autonomous cooperative behavior of multiple vehicles. Further information can be found on the web sites: www.insitugroup.com and http://www.aa.washington.edu/research/afsl/ The complete story of the Transatlantic Flight of Laima can be found in “Flying the Atlantic – Without a Pilot”, Tad McGeer and Juris Vagners, GPS World, February, 1999. The paper is available from either web site.