Dave Harvey
Commercial correspondent, BBC West
Bbc
The Proteus is a research aircraft designed by Leonardo in Yeovil for the Royal Navy
Somerset engineers build a helicopter that should fly itself – without needing humans to make it work remotely – in a research project for the Royal Navy.
There have been unleashed helicopters previously embedded, but they were all piloted by pilots using remote controls from a ship or a control base.
The Proteus experimental helicopter is designed by a team from Leonardo Helicopters UK, in Yeovil, to fly autonomously – performing a mission in itself. We think it is the first of its kind in the world.
“It is a question of not putting people in danger,” said Nigel Colman, Managing Director of Leonardo Helicopters UK, the main manufacturer of large-scale helicopters in the United Kingdom.
Leonardo helicopters
An computer impression of the autonomous helicopter dropping “sonobooys” to listen to the submarines
Mr. Colman knows his helicopters. As a navigator for the RAF, he stole for 30 years, finding himself as a vice-marshal, leading the command of the United Kingdom by helicopter.
Many think of helicopters in daring combat missions, pulling on reservoirs or abandoning the special forces behind enemy lines. But many more flights are routine, moving the cargo from one ship to another, from the ship to the shore.
‘He doesn’t need to eat’
“People like me spend decades pilot dull, dirty and dangerous missions,” said Colman.
“If we don’t have to risk life, we can manage this for eight hours, he doesn’t need to eat, he doesn’t need a bed. There are so many things that the navy can do it.”
So what kind of missions could new autonomous planes be given?
A typical task would be to drop Sonar’s buoys into the sea, used to listen to submarines. The pilots constantly pilot these jobs for the moment, and each flight has a risk.
The team sees the Proteus take off from a frigate of the Royal Navy, flying for the predefined coordinates, abandoning high -tech buoys, then returning to the cockpit.
All without any human crew controlling the helicopter.
Nigel Colman, Managing Director of Leonardo Helicopters UK, called the new “Native Work” project
Mr. Colman explained: “It will work.
What if the situation of the mission changes? A storm is preparing, an unexpected ship appears?
“He will have all the information he needs to cover,” said Colman. “To avoid threats, avoid collisions, everything that is necessary.”
Upstairs, software engineers simulate the operation of the plane. I look at that the helicopter sees an oil platform, identifies it and takes a road around.
In another example, Mr. Colman imagines the plane which drops the buoys of Sonar and overview of a small fishing boat. An optical camera under the helicopter would identify the profession and choose a new position to drop the buoy.
Victoria Thorpe, who works in purchases, says that she “jumped” during the opportunity to work on the project
They have been making Yeovil helicopters in this factory for 80 years. Today, the company belongs to Leonardo. In total, more than 50% of helicopters piloted by the British armed forces were built in this factory.
People working on the new revolutionary project are clearly proudly.
In addition to certain very high technology electronic and digital works, there are still a lot of screwdrivers and keys. I meet Tom Spencer, an airplane adjuster, fixing steel plates to the cell.
“It’s something different from your usual work, it’s a new project for our business,” said Tom Spencer, one of the teams
He says: “It is something different from your usual work, it is a new project for our company, so it is something on which no one else has worked before.”
Victoria Thorpe had the chance to join the project, in the supply, and to “jump on it”.
She said: “It’s great to work on something so new and exciting, and we collaborate with many local companies that provide us.”
More than 3,000 people work at the Leonardo factory in Yeovil, Somerset
The Proteus is a research program for the Royal Navy, designed to see what is possible. It is unlikely that this exact plane will be produced in large numbers, but experts say that all countries explore unrelated planes.
David Gailbraith, professor of war and technology at the University of Bath, said: “The military is relying more and more on automation and automatic learning in order to really do the work that would be particularly dangerous, then trying to remove individual risk.”
The team hopes to manage the new plane “in summer”. It will be in a secret place, far from all cities or villages, I am told. But they are convinced that it will be a success.
“We are going to program it, he will do his thing, he will finish his mission, as simple as that,” said Colman.
