Aurora Flight Sciences Wins US Air Force Contract on Vision-Based Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) Guidance

CAMBRIDGE, MA, Oct 23 (MARKET WIRE) --
Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that the company has been selected
for a U.S. Air Force SBIR Phase II award in support of vision-based micro
air vehicle (MAV) guidance.

Aurora will be developing an integrated system for guidance of MAVs
through cluttered environments using vision and sonar. The system is
called the 'Panoramic Avoidance and Navigation using OPTics Integrated
with Sonar' (PANOPTIS) system. The goal for PANOPTIS is to provide a
coherent, lightweight solution for MAVs that enables true urban or
'swallow-like' flight.

In Phase I Aurora has shown that the PANOPTIS components and algorithms
are suitable for low size, weight, and power situations; Aurora has also
demonstrated robustness to sensor inaccuracies and environmental factors.
Operational standards will include aerial surveillance support of ground
operations, special operations forces, Marine expeditionary teams, and
other military units that currently use small unmanned air vehicles
(UAVs). In any situation where small UAVs are currently deployed, a MAV
outfitted with PANOPTIS would yield greatly enhanced capability for
gathering information in tight quarters, surviving during communication
outages and/or when the warfighter loses vehicle situational awareness.
"It combines the latest techniques in wide-field optic flow, bat-inspired
echolocation and behavioral/automaton-based navigation and maneuvering,"
stated Dr. Jim Paduano, Aurora's Principal Investigator.

The contract is in collaboration with the University of Maryland and
supported by Professors Sean Humbert and Tim Horiuchi, who specialize in
using optical flow and echolocation to provide obstacle avoidance.

About Aurora Flight Sciences

Aurora Flight Sciences designs and builds robotic aircraft and other
advanced aerospace vehicles for scientific and military applications.
Aurora is headquartered in Manassas, VA and operates production plants in
Clarksburg, WV and Columbus, MS and a Research and Development Center in
Cambridge, MA. To view recent press releases and more about Aurora please
visit our web site at www.aurora.aero.

Contact:
Patricia Woodside
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