US Army seeks Micro-UAS CRADA extension with Bell
30 April 2021
by Pat Host
The US Army’s corporate research laboratory wants to continue its collaborative efforts with Bell that lead to the development of the company’s Micro-UAS (Unmanned Aerial System), according to John Hrynuk, US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) mechanical engineer.
The service official told
Janes on 29 April that ongoing collaboration with Bell through the 2018 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) would enable the ARL to continue providing emerging autonomous behaviours and leverage new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques on a production-ready vehicle. The Micro-UAS emerged from a 2017 discussion between members of Bell’s innovation team and ARL researchers and became a flying concept vehicle with multiple flight demonstrations. This includes the 2021 US Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE) held from 5 February to 5 March at Fort Benning in Georgia.