Israel Aerospace Industries and avionics manufacturer Honeywell will jointly develop a “sense-and-avoid” capability for IAI’s Heron series of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The project, funded by the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (Bird) Foundation, aims to demonstrate a system in 2018.
Honeywell will provide a single line replaceable unit for the project, integrating software, hardware and fusion capability for different sensors. IAI (Chalet A29) will contribute a ground control station pilot interface with separation and collision avoidance maneuvering logic supporting Heron pilots.
The development work will take place in Tel Aviv and Albuquerque, New Mexico; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Redmond, Washington, in the U.S. Flight tests are planned for mid-2018 on the Heron 1 UAS.
“Sense-and-avoid solutions do not currently exist for UASs to operate in national civilian airspace,” said Carey Smith, Honeywell Aerospace defense and space president. “With decades of experience providing the aerospace industry with countless products focused on safety, Honeywell will leverage this and government agencies to work with IAI and provide a significant step forward in next-generation avionics solutions that address the need for sense-and-avoid” capability.
The U.S. and Israeli governments established the Bird Foundation in 1977 to promote cooperation between private-sector companies involved in high-tech industries in the two countries. The foundation funds up to 50 percent of each company’s research and development expenses associated with a joint project. “Repayments are due only if commercial revenues are generated as a direct result of the project,” the foundation states.
Honeywell is also providing a TCAS II processor and fusion algorithms for a sense-and-avoid system being tested by NASA and the FAA in the U.S. Based on NASA’s Ikhana UAS, a Predator B derivative, the system combines Honeywell’s TCAS system with a BAE Systems automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) transponder and General Atomics “due regard” radar.