New Pod System Offers Aircraft Extreme Computing Capabilities
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A new technology is capable of being flown on remotely piloted aircraft in a pod-based enclosure and enables on-board, high-performance embedded computing to derive real-time, actionable intelligence.
SRC has been focused on solving myriad problems that exist around the data analysis requirements of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. In an effort to bring big data analysis closer to the sensor, SRC has developed Agile Condor for the US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL).
The Agile Condor pod system is a scalable, low cost, size, weight and power (low-CSWaP) hardware architecture that enables high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) on-board remotely piloted aircraft (RPA).
According to the company’s website, the Agile Condor flight-configured pod system consists of an external pod enclosure and an internal chassis that supports the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) single-board computers (SBCs), graphics processing units (GPUs), Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and solid-state storage devices (SSDs).
The pod enclosure is based on an existing, flight-certified design specifically modified to use ambient air cooling for thermal management of the embedded electronics.
The COTS upgradeable architecture of the Agile Condor system provides for fast technology refresh, which decreases life cycle costs, reduces system downtime, and assures continued usefulness of the system.
Paul Tremont, SRC’s president and CEO, said: “We remain strong in our commitment to provide warfighters with increased actionable intelligence by pushing the boundaries of HPEC and bringing data processing and analysis capabilities closer to the edge.”
The modular design of the Agile Condor system’s architecture allows for expandable computational power – paving the way for advanced computing technology, such as neuromorphic computing. Bio-inspired technology like neuromorphic computers function in a similar way to the human brain and use very little power for certain tasks. This technology, when used on the Agile Condor system, allows for enhanced situational awareness, adaptive decision making, multi-mode, multi-mission, massive analytics and heterogeneous information processing, helping RPAs recognize and act upon real-time information. Additionally, due to the low power consumption of neuromorphic computers, RPAs would be able to stay in the air for longer durations – enabling new and more efficient missions.
The US Air Force is scheduled to put the pod system through flight testing in the fall of 2016 as part of an ongoing, three-year research and development contract to deliver a complete Agile Condor system with embedded computing at the end of 2017.
