As intelligent systems for large unmanned aircraft proliferate, new methods and aircraft will be necessary to safely and cost-effectively test them. This paper details the development and test of one such aircraft - the UH-1 Autonomy Testbed. The aircraft is a Bell UH-1H, modified with a digital flight control system. The aircraft has interfaces enabling a payload computer to provide guidance commands to the flight computer, as well as mounting provisions for a variety of sensors. This enables the rapid development and test of novel sensing and planning algorithms. This aircraft was used as the testbed for the Office of Naval Research Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS) program.
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