MIPS Project Challenge:
The goal of this MIPS project was to develop an Autonomous Intelligent Flight Management System (AIFMS) that incorporates onboard navigation and knowledge of geographic positions, awareness of hazards posed to humans and property by identified flight anomalies, selection of minimum-hazard responses to anomalous situations, automatic recovery from disturbances, and collision prediction and avoidance.

Project Scope:
Through this MIPS project, researchers were slated to design and develop software for the company’s Autonomous Intelligent Flight Management System (AIFMS), with the capability to interoperate with a commercial, off-the-shelf autopilot UAV. The flight system was anticipated to be capable of: performing accurate onboard navigation with knowledge of UAV geographic position and velocity, airspeed, and altitude; providing accurate onboard knowledge of geographic positions and lateral extents of high-population/high-value surface objects; performing guidance and control for the automated minimization of hazards and recovery from disturbances; predicting collision with other aircraft and planning and executing collision avoidance maneuvers; identifying the occurrence of (and estimate the root causes of) UAV anomalous behavior and faults that compromise a planned mission; and selecting a single safe response to each identified anomaly/fault.