India working on UAV anti-collision system

Indian aerospace scientists have developed an in-flight collision avert system that prevents unmanned aerial vehicles from crashing into enemy aircraft or other objects.

The model predictive static programming algorithm protection system, developed at the Indian Institute of Science, uses a series of installed collision guidance algorithms as instructions that allow the UAVs to detect objects, especially if they are flying low.

This includes tall buildings, towers and other aircraft, including commercial passenger planes.

The MPSP Algorithm can also be used in medium- and long-range missiles to ensure they don't crash into objects such as anti-missile missiles as they approach their own target. MPSP can redirect the missiles back on course to their target without loss of accuracy.

The developer, Radhakant Padhi, 37, said he has been working on algorithms for aerospace for more than a decade and perfected the algorithm technology during his project related to advanced missile technology at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

In 2005, Padhi developed an advanced version of the algorithm, called the MPSP algorithm, while working on one of India's missile guidance systems.

Padhi also said he received $80,000 of funding from Air Force Research Lab in the United States to further develop the MPSP Algorithm.

AFRL, operated by the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command, controls the Air Force science and technology research budget. The laboratory was formed in 1997 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. It was a consolidation of the four Air Force laboratory facilities of Wright, Phillips, Rome, and Armstrong as well as the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

It has worked with NASA, Department of Energy National Laboratories, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and other research organizations within the U.S. Department of Defense. Projects include the X-37, X-40, X-53, HTV-3X, YAL-1A, Advanced Tactical Laser and the Tactical Satellite Program.

AFRL, as with similar technology research establishments in the United States, is facing a staffing problem as 40 percent of its workers are set to retire over the next two decades. The country also isn't producing enough scientists to keep up with job vacancies.

One reason for the personnel shortage is a large percentage of science and engineering graduates in the United States are foreign citizens who aren't eligible for work because of security clearances needed for many of the jobs. Government statistics show that 60 percent of all doctoral candidates in the sciences are foreign-born, a report in The Boston Globe newspaper said last year.

"If the requirement is you have to be a U.S. citizen, then you have a large pool that simply isn't eligible," said Mark Regets, a senior analyst at the National Science Foundation who tracks science and engineering graduates and workforce.

Air Force Materiel Command is looking to fill more than 5,000 positions by October 2011, many of them in chemistry, physics, and electrical, aeronautical and environmental engineering. Jobs include researching cleaner fuels, laser-guided weapons, UAVs and cyberprotection.