Aurora envisions two possible non-NASA Commercial Applications resulting from the proposed innovation. The first, and immediate application of the planner is to UAV Automatic Take-off and Landing (ATOL) systems on Aurora's fleet of UAVs. A second, and broader application is based on the opportunity of becoming experts in developing Safety Verification-based algorithms and their application to both manned and unmanned systems. An example application in the manned systems domain is the extension of the planner to autolander systems. For unmanned systems, Aurora views this effort as a technical opportunity that will eventually assist in improving UAV safety and reliability.
Aurora envisions two related NASA Commercial Applications resulting from the proposed innovation, both of which align with NASA's Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control (IRAC) project. First, the planning logic is envisioned as a separate, specialized module tailored specifically to the flare phase of flight, thus fulfilling the multi-disciplinary IRAC project goal for this specifid flight phase. In a broader context, the success demonstration of applying Safety Verification-based algorithms to this difficult flight regime would spur similar efforts and thus, applications to many other flight regimes, especially those in which severe upset recovery is of interest.
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