A Star Wars-style R2D2 to fly with fighter pilots. The latest AI toy for the US military

It’s funny how, to a greater or lesser extent, little by little we are getting closer to all that future that we experienced in the movies and thought would never come. It’s true that hoverboards and flying cars aren’t with us yet, but at least we can now tick the R2-D2 box by assisting fighter pilots in mid-flight.

Thanks to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with the United States Air Force, the fear of seeing pilots end up replaced by artificial intelligence that turns combat fighters into mere remotely manned or self-managed drones, has been resolved. relatively blurred. His system VIPR has managed to combine the best of both worlds in a mix that is reminiscent of Star Wars and its combat droids.

An R2-D2 for fighter pilots

As stated by John Winder, a computational scientist with the APL program – the acronym for Applied Physics Laboratory – the VIPR is like an R2-D2 of Star Wars which “can stay behind and provide support by maintaining situational awareness, tracking blind spots and alerting the pilot when necessary, or it can step in and play the role of the pilot, taking control of the aircraft and applying measures to save the life of its pilot human”.

Far from being a mere GPS, the idea of VIPR system is that it takes advantage of artificial intelligence to go one step further by adapting to the pilot and acting accordingly. He must know and anticipate his intentions, reasoning in the same way as his human companion would and looking for flaws in his possible deductions to prevent the pilot’s self-confidence from taking its toll.

“In addition to looking outward to track and predict enemy threats, VIPR also has to look inward to understand the human pilot’s intentions, objectives and modes of behavior, all in a matter of seconds. And when the pilot has missed something critical during combat, VIPR has to inform you of it in a timely and actionable manner to help you survive the engagement.”

Although they are only in the prototype phase for now, the first tests with real pilots have turned out to be very promising, recognizing that “they all came out of the simulation with a smile on their face”, and that it works perfectly when it comes to recognizing voice commands, jumping between piloting and co-piloting effectively and fluidly and, in addition, coordinate the control of different squadmates at the same time.

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