Sikorsky Innovations Director Sees Matrix as a Game-Changer for High-Risk Civil Missions Written 8 March 2022

Aviation International News reports that Sikorsky Innovations Director Igor Cherepinsky “sees Matrix as a game-changer for high-risk civil missions, including night-time aerial firefighting and over-water search and rescue (SAR).” Sikorsky is currently “working with the FAA to certify the system, which uses a plethora of onboard sensors, lidar, and cameras mated to proprietary hardware and software. The system comes with a kit that converts virtually any aircraft to varying degrees of add-on fly-by-wire control that Cherepinsky likens to ‘lane assist’ on cars.” Key to the system “‘doing well’ [are] Sikorsky’s proprietary algorithms, which differentiate it from the guidance systems aboard existing drones that Cherepinsky characterizes as ‘sophisticated autopilots following waypoints.’” Cherepinsky said that “Matrix can be flown both line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight, and an aircraft equipped with it can have its mission changed from an operator ‘in the cockpit, backseat, Oklahoma, or the moon.’”
Full Story (Aviation International News)