Nov. 11, 2004 — A new aircraft guidance system can transform chosen planes into robots designed for "volatile combat situations," according to aeronautics engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The robot planes respond to commands typed in English from a laptop on the ground or onboard another aircraft. The engineers tested the system in June at Edwards Air Force Base and, according to an MIT press release, it performed "flawlessly."

The demonstration marks the first time that an individual has communicated complex and precise commands in real time to an unpiloted plane.

When asked if such robot planes are being deployed in Iraq, the research team told Discovery News, "Not that we are aware of."

The system, however, is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency through the Air Force Research Laboratory. It appears to be an improvement on the Dragon Eye, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that the U.S. Marine Corps has said is now being used in Iraq.

According to the MIT research team, a plane outfitted with the new software acts like an unmanned wingman within a fighter plane squadron. A piloted aircraft flying at a higher altitude outside of a suspected danger zone controls the companion robot plane.

For the Air Force base tests, a Boeing F-15 fighter jet served as the piloted aircraft, while a Lockheed T-33 trainer jet served as the robot. A pilot and crewsperson rode in the Lockheed, in case the system failed, but the Boeing crew controlled all of the second plane's movement.

The controlling software consists of three primary elements. The first is a natural language interface, created in collaboration with the software company Teragram Corp., which allows the unmanned plane to translate typed commands into machine language and vice versa.

The second is a task scheduler that interprets commands into doable tasks, such as turning at a chosen velocity. The third is a safe-trajectory-planning algorithm that helps the unmanned plane to avoid collisions. Trajectories can be both preprogrammed and computed in real time.

Mario Valenti, a flight controls engineer for Boeing who is on leave at MIT pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science, is one of the principle researchers for the new system.

He told Discovery News, "Our guidance technology can be used with any UAV. In other projects, the same technology is used to fly small, unmanned helicopters. We are continuing our research in extending our research to multiple vehicles. This work can be used for civilian applications, like air traffic control."

When asked how the technology is being kept out of the hands of terrorists, Valenti said that Boeing holds the software used in the flight demonstration.

He added, "Much of the success of the technology lies not only with the research performed by MIT, but also with the ability to integrate it within a complex system such as an aircraft squadron. Very few countries or organizations are currently able to reach the appropriate level of system integration that can leverage our research."

By all accounts, U.S. forces in Iraq support such robotic technologies. In addition to the Dragon Eye UAV, which is a small, radio-controlled plane outfitted with low-light and infrared cameras, the U.S. military is using a robotic surveillance device called a Dragon Runner.

The nine-pound Dragon Runner has a front mounted camera and video transmitter. It can survey dangerous areas and communicate information to U.S. troops.

Currently, there are 35 Dragon Eyes in Iraq. Major John Giscard, the device's project leader, told the San Francisco Chronicle that reaction from the Marines has been positive.

Giscard said, "They want more of them. They want them out there faster. They're flying three or four missions a day with them."