WAYVIZ, LLC — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: AFX20D-TCSO1

Description

Realistic visualization of surrounding airspace and terrain are crucial elements for safe operation by remote pilots of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC), visual spectrum cameras, IR sensors, TCAS, ACAS, ground-based radar flight-following and even onboard radar may be technically sufficient for remote pilots. However a great deal of sensory information is missing. The remote pilot receiving telemetry transmitted by these legacy systems may be rule-compliant but sorely lacking in confidence and comfort regarding situational awareness. Moreover, training pilots for such operations today is problematic given the absence of flight control standardization among UAV developers and near total absence of formal curricula for training pilots of such aircraft. Providing high bandwidth, three-dimensional, virtual reality, photo-realistic moving imagery to such pilots will tend to fill in the sensory blanks to provide maximum collision avoidance and safety. Such systems may be the gating difference enabling actualization of the long-term UAV vision - and not. Virtual Reality technology has advanced to a state where the human experience of actually, remotely piloting live flying UAVs may come to appear no different to a student pilot during training versus a certified pilot-in-command of actual live flight. The proposed system employs core licensing of the Unreal Engine system from Epic Games, which heretofore has been used primarily in photo-realistic 3D VR game programs as detailed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games Even more compelling has been employment of Unreal Engine to produce movie and television scenery which is indistinguishable from real life, as in the new Disney Star Wars take-off series “Mandalorian,” see: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/forging-new-paths-for-filmmakers-on-the-mandalorian One need only watch side-by-side the Garmin video here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnvFvGuJ4wM] and the Mandalorian video referenced above, to grasp the incredible advances in realism between that possible in Garmin’s systems and the Unreal Engine-based system proposed here, without bandwidth or processing power limitations. It is the goal of this project to add high definition photo-realism and HD video-realism to the flight visualization systems employed in flight control and flight training of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and EVTOL (Electrically Powered Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft, to vastly improve safety while vastly lowering the cost of remote control network operations centers and training systems for such aircraft.