Autonomy in the Air: Intelligence, Prediction and Decision-making

When people are isolated in remote wilderness, cut off by natural disasters, or trapped in zones too hazardous for traditional access, every second counts. Rescue teams must fight against severe weather, rugged terrain and potential personal risk to deliver aid. In these moments, having access to the right technology can be the difference between success and failure. By extending responders’ reach and shielding flight crews from danger, autonomous aviation creates new pathways for life‑saving missions.
 

Autonomous Intelligence

Now, autonomous intelligence powers platforms such as the Sikorsky S-70UAS™ U-Hawk™ and UH-60 Black Hawk^® through Sikorsky’s MATRIX™ autonomy system. MATRIX combines AI‑enabled sensor streams to create a real-time picture of the mission, allowing operators to focus on actionable insight rather than manual flight control. The MATRIX autonomy system automatically generates a flight plan, relying on cameras, sensors, and algorithms to navigate the fly-by-wire-controlled aircraft safely to its destination. By embedding these capabilities into existing airframes, the system reduces pilot workload, improves protection, and enables missions that would otherwise be too risky for crewed flights. Designed for a multitude of roles, these versatile autonomous systems offer game changing capabilities for firefighting, search and rescue, and disaster relief, and can be rapidly deployed to meet urgent, lifesaving missions around the world. 

From helicopters and drones to fighters and cargo aircraft, Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy has flown them all. The system has become the industry standard for autonomous flight, accumulating more than 1,000 flight hours, 500 successful tests and demonstrations and training 100+ operators across the Department of War and firefighting communities. To date, MATRIX autonomy has been integrated on 20+ different platforms, proving its flexibility and robustness in the most demanding environments. All platforms equipped with MATRIX autonomy can be commanded using the same interface, giving operators the ability to seamlessly manage various systems with just a few taps.
 

Integration and Autonomy for Prediction, Detection & Decision-making

Lockheed Martin invested in EMBERPOINT™, a purpose‑built coordination layer that links prediction, detection, decision‑making and response into a seamless workflow. EMBERPOINT(TM) has created an open-architecture framework that invites the best-of-breed wildfire technologies to interoperate, eliminating duplicate spending and accelerating the journey from detection to action. This framework brings autonomous unmanned‑air‑system surveillance of fire outbreaks, standardizes and harmonizes data from cameras, satellites and ground sensors, and fuses these inputs into immediately actionable situational awareness.
 

EMBERPOINT™ is backed by American industry leaders including Lockheed Martin, PG&E Corporation, Salesforce and Wells Fargo to deliver smarter solutions faster to first responders.
 

The same principles that guide the MATRIX suite and EMBERPOINT are reflected in Lockheed Martin’s broader mission to harness autonomous technology for the public good. By automating routine or hazardous flight tasks, we help pilots and first‑responders, free human operators to concentrate on strategic decisions and expand the reach of relief efforts into areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. The core technology remains the same: intelligent, trusted autonomy that turns data into decisive action when every minute matters.

Now, Lockheed Martin is continuing our technology-for-good work by sponsoring the GoAERO competition to help further the future of autonomous first aid. GoAERO is a prize competition where teams create autonomy-enabled aircraft capable of performing emergency response missions. GoAERO missions focus on autonomy, productivity, adversity and maneuverability to bring first responders to those in need, rescue those who need help and bring in needed goods and services in crises. Our sponsorship will fund the planning, logistics and prize-money associated with this competition.