Drones Swarm Gets Software Upgraded in Mid-flight by UAV

A drone swarm on a mission got its software upgraded in mid-flight by another drone to meet the requirements for a new mission.

In an experiment conducted by Collins Aerospace and a U.S.-based tech startup, Parasanti Inc., a swarm of drones was deployed from a helicopter. During their mission, manned aircraft received intelligence that required the drones to change their approach.

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But those drones lacked the software needed to take on the modified mission. Normally, they’d have to call the drones back to the helicopter to install the software. But with Parasanti’s application, the team deployed an additional drone that flew to the swarm and installed the software in seconds.

The two companies combined Collins’ RapidEdge Monitoring System, an operating system for drone swarms and airborne-launched effects, with Parasanti’s UNITE application, which allows drones to download new software even when they’re in a contested environment or beyond the range of their command center. By transferring data as close to the source as possible, it reduces the risk of an adversary intercepting the download.

“This type of software deployment in the field allows our systems to actually be smaller, cheaper, and more agile when they get fielded,” said Peter Laird, a Collins value stream leader. “You don’t need to make it one size fits all right out of the gate.”

As part of the demonstration, Collins worked with Parasanti to integrate their Unite product—a microservice that allows systems to share containerized data in real-time—to enable RapidEdge LEs to “teach” each other behaviors while in flight, mid-mission, without the need for human intervention, as stated in a Parasanti release.