Features & Benefits
Autonomous Systems & Urban Air Mobility
We are leveraging SNC’s deep expertise in obstacle and collision avoidance, flight navigation, landing systems and other innovative advanced technologies in support of autonomous vehicles, including self-driving cars and self-flying aircraft in urban areas.
Critical, real-time
Enhanced interoperable
Precision autonomous
The Future of Urban Air Mobility
Autonomous delivery aircraft and vehicles offer opportunities to significantly reduce congestion on urban streets by shifting package and cargo delivery to the air and at night. To do so, providers require technological solutions that enable navigation of crowded city streets and other potential obstacles and hazards at any time of day and in any type of weather.
Our technical credentials are well known among SNC’s government and military customers, especially in the areas of obstacle detection and avoidance systems, automated flight, takeoff and landing, navigation and platform communications and coordination controls. When applied commercially, these capabilities will help make civil and commercial autonomous ground transportation and urban air mobility (UAM) a cost-effective and safe reality.
SNC’s robust portfolio of intellectual property positions us at the forefront of the unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology marketplace. As a world-class aviation, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and unmanned integrator, our specialized capabilities and products provide customers with a comprehensive set of unmanned system control technology, magnetic wave radios, manned-unmanned teaming technologies and national air space deconfliction technology.
Obstacle & Collision Avoidance Systems
SNC technology could play an important role in overcoming one of the greatest barriers to safe and reliable autonomous ground transportation and flight: the ability of vehicles and aircraft to detect and avoid stationary and moving obstacles in the air and on the ground including wires, buildings, pedestrians and other aircraft and vehicles— and then continue to their destination.
Our obstacle avoidance system is based on Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) Solutions technology, currently in use by the U.S. military. DVE enhances visibility and situational awareness in the dark, inclement weather and low-visibility conditions, enabling them to detect and avoid stationary and moving obstacles in the path through the travel to and from any destination. The technology could allow autonomous flights in crowded and complicated city canyons at night and in adverse weather conditions.
Assured Navigation
SNC’s assured navigation technology, currently in use by U.S. military, can provide a navigation solution for vehicles and aircraft operating in environments where the GPS is degraded or not available, such as in urban canyons and within structures.
Speeding Cost-Effective Deployment
Safety critical software systems developed by SNC subsidiary Kutta Technologies Inc. (Kutta), could streamline development costs for emerging autonomous vehicle, unmanned drone and UAM systems. This innovative software could be tailored to unique vehicle specifications and delivered in a variety of hardware platforms based on customer needs. These safety critical systems could also be used to provide traffic management for vehicles and UAM aircraft, safely integrating these drones and UAM aircraft in the current Air Traffic Management system.
Autonomous Takeoff & Landing Technology
Our Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Common Automatic Recovery System (UCARS) could provide precision autonomous takeoff and landings for rotary, fixed-wing, or hybrid drones and eVTOL/UAM aircraft using direction from the Air Traffic Management system and on-board aircraft systems.
Interoperable Communication & Beyond-Line-of-Sight Technologies
SNC’s unmanned communications and control technology leverages and merges our extensive technological experience in enhanced interoperable communication and beyond-line-of-sight technologies.
Safeguarding Against External & Internal Bad Actors
We envision our cybersecurity technology playing a significant role in the deployment of autonomous vehicle and delivery systems.
SNC’s family of Binary Armor® cybersecurity systems provide critical, real-time endpoint security to stop both internal and external online threats, including malware and intentionally unsafe or erroneous instructions, from reaching autonomous vehicles.
A challenge with today’s airports is the intrusion of unauthorized drones into their airspace. The deployment of UAM into our National Airspace will increase the number of vertiports and aerodromes, increasing the possibility of drone interference. Kutta’s ground based Sense and Avoid system provides a dome of security around the vertiports and aerodromes, detecting unauthorized incursions and providing evasive maneuvers, guiding UAM aircraft to a safe landing.
