As technologies advance and applications for uncrewed aircraft increase, the capability to conduct automated air-to-air refueling becomes increasingly important. This paper provides a review of required sensors to enable automated air-to-air refueling for an uncrewed aircraft, as well as a review of published research on the topic. Automated air-to-air refueling of uncrewed aircraft eliminates the need for ground infrastructure for intermediate refueling, as well as the need for on-site personnel. Automated air-to-air refueling potentially supports civilian applications such as weather monitoring, surveillance for wildfires, search and rescue, and emergency response, especially when airfields are not available due to natural disasters. For military applications, to enable the Air Wing of the Future to strike at the ranges required for the mission, both crewed and uncrewed aircraft must be capable of air-to-air refueling. To cover the sensors required to complete automated air-to-air refueling, a brief history of air-to-air refueling is presented, followed by a concept of employment for uncrewed aircraft refueling, and finally, a review of the sensors required to complete the different phases of automated air-to-air refueling. To complete uncrewed aircraft refueling, the uncrewed receiver aircraft must have the sensors required to establish communication, determine relative position, decrease separation to astern position, transition to computer vision, position keep during refueling, and separate from the tanker aircraft upon completion of refueling. This paper provides a review of the twelve sensors that would enable the uncrewed aircraft to complete the seven tasks required for automated air-to-air refueling.
During the 2021 summit, a baseline overview of literature pertaining to the field of computer vision (CV) was provided. For the 2022 summit, a sample of literature published since the 2021 summit was provided to introduce participants to updated work in the field of test and evaluation (T&E), CV, algorithmic assurance, and frameworks to provide assurance of algorithms. All papers were collected from the Purdue University Library 3 and Dissertations and Theses Database 4 and cited in references. 5-14
Applicable standards governing LECBuilding off the standards survey conducted for the 2021 summit, a follow-on survey of standards for all modes of transportation (e.g., rail, sea, road, etc.) was conducted in support of the 2022 summit to determine if any notable improvements or advancements had occurred.
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