MIT Humans and Automation Lab
Salon.com: Drones’ new weapon: P.R.
The industry's fighting back, determined to remake its image. "Change scares people," an industry rep tells Salon. And Missy Cummings weighs in.
WIRED Business Conference: Drones, Tractors & Beyond
Chris Anderson, editor in chief of WIRED magazine, interviews Missy Cummings at the Wired Business Conference 2012.
Salon.com: Boredom, terror, deadly mistakes: Secrets of the new drone
war
So you want to be a drone pilot? Have a seat in the operator’s control station that guides the remotely piloted aircraft. You could be sitting in a trailer on Creech Air Force Base in Nevada or doing your duty at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. From this perch, you can see a battle space on the other side of the world. You are virtually on the front lines of war...
The Economist: Wave in the drones
Natural interactions
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are bridging the gap between military robots and their human counterparts, by teaching drones to understand human gestures.
Boston Globe: MIT engineers help fight roadside perils
John DiFava, a former Massachusetts State Police superintendent, is lucky to be alive. In 1976, an out-of-control vehicle nearly killed DiFava as he stood outside his patrol car on Interstate 495. “I was able to jump into the cruiser just in time,’’ said DiFava, who is currently chief of police at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Now, 36 years later, about a dozen
police officers are killed by careless drivers each year, according to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Also at risk are other emergency responders,
such as firefighters, paramedics, and tow truck operators. And in Massachusetts,
there are two or three accidents a month in which a police officer or his
vehicle is hit while stopped.
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Out of ‘hobby’ class, drones lifting off for personal, commercial use
... Ms. Cummings saw it coming. As a Navy pilot, she experienced the technological jump from old-school, hand-flown A-4s — the jets used as the pretend enemies in the film “Top Gun” — to newer, more computerized F-18 fighters.
Lawfare Podcast Episode #5: Missy Cummings on Drones, Drones, Drones
Cummings is a bit of a force of nature. In addition to designing unmanned weapons systems, she was one of the Navy’s first female fighter pilots–an experience she chronicles in her book Hornet’s Nest. I met her at a recent conference on the future of weapons put together by the Harvard Law School-Brookings Project on Law and Security, where she dazzled the room with her thoughtful comments and detailed technical knowledge..
Science Friday - Drone Technology Reaches New Heights
Ira Flatow interviews Missy Cummings, Peter Singer, and Chris Anderson on the growing use of drones by the military, civilian, and amateur sectors.
MIT AeroAstro Highlight - Human-Automation Collaboration Presents Possibilities Unattainable by Either Alone
While we humans are capable of complex — even astounding — tasks and feats, we have known since the earliest days of mechanization that we can employ machines to extend human abilities, making it possible to do things faster and better.
IEEE Spectrum - When Will We Have Unmanned Commercial Airliners?
"Look, there's no harder job for a pilot than landing on an aircraft carrier," says Missy Cummings, a former jet jockey for the U.S. Navy and now an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. "It's what Navy pilots have over those in the Air Force. And when I saw an F-18 land itself on an aircraft carrier, I knew my job was soon going to be over." That was in 1994. Automation has gotten rather better since then.
NetworkWorld - MIT researchers aim to improve aircraft carrier effciency
Network world video features HAL researcher Jason Ryan and he shows how the DCAP system helps humans and computers work together to improve military operations.
NECN
- How the iDrone could change life
It might not look like much, but this contraption - completely with a camera and four propellers - might protect our soldiers and Marines in the field. It's an unmanned aerial vehicle - a UAV - or drone.
New England Post - MIT Researchers Operate Unmanned Helicopter Via iPhone
Imagine a soldier deep in enemy territory at the foot of a hill. The objective of his mission lies on the other side of that hill, but so might enemy forces. Or consider a fire chief coordinating containment of a forest fire. He needs information about what is happening inside the blaze, but sending in firefighters would put much-needed personnel at risk. What if that soldier and that fire chief could send in a small, lightweight helicopter to scope out the scene without risking any human life?...
MIT News- Using a phone to fly a drone: Pilotless planes at MIT controlled
via iPhones in Seattle
Imagine controlling an airplane in flight just by holding your iPhone out in front of you: tilting it in the direction you want the plane to travel, or raising it to make the plane fly higher. Or tapping a point on a map on the screen, and having the plane automatically fly to the designated spot...
Seapower - High-Tech Flight Deck
After nearly 90 years of managing the chaotic and dangerous operations on an aircraft carrier’s flight deck primarily by rudimentary manual means, the Navy is taking a number of steps to insert digital-age technology into the process.
Los Angeles Times - Taking iPads into battle
Phones and other smart devices are being tested across all branches of the military. Seeing an opportunity, software firms and defense contractors are developing apps that will enable soldiers to pass along intelligence, view reconnaissance images or even pilot small drones by remote control.
Smithsonian.com - Pilotless Planes
A military drone is not a 767, and extrapolating the capabilities of these military machines into a civilian context is fraught with gigantic problems that MIT automation expert Mary Cummings chooses to ignore.
MIT
HAL featured on Boeing website - Smart Phones fly mini drones
Boeing engineer George Windsor sat in a small room at a Boeing building in Seattle and picked up an iPhone. After a short series of finger movements and taps, a miniature unmanned aircraft that's about as big as a pizza box started to hover, turn and fly. In some cases, Windsor tapped on locations on a map on the iPhone, and the UAV went to that spot; in other instances, Windsor moved the phone up, down, left and right, and the vehicle moved accordingly...
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full article
» related article
in LA Times
MIT News - Clearing the decks: A new planning tool helps direct traffic on aircraft carriers.
On the deck of an aircraft carrier, where up to 60 aircraft are crammed into 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares), real estate is at a premium. While aircraft directors wave fighter jets out of the landing strip, maintenance crews work at the ship’s edges, refueling parked planes and repairing deck machinery. Keeping track of all the pieces — and keeping everyone safe — can seem like a game of high-stakes chess.
Missy Cummings on the Colbert Report, Wed. July 27, 2011
Missy Cummings wants to replace the cumbersome surveillance technology troops currently use on the battlefield with lightweight, smartphone-operated drones.
» Video clip of Missy Cummings
» Full
episode
In the Boston Globe - Tiny unmanned craft can fly into danger - controlled by an iPhone - but raise privacy and security questions.
UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV )Missy Cummings and her team of MIT students are developing vehicles the size of a pizza box and equipped with cameras that can stream video of otherwise-inaccessible locations. The project has funding from Boeing Co.
Moving inventions to the marketplace
One of the speakers at TechConnect World, Mary (Missy) Cummings — associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and and engineering systems — holds a UAV she uses in her projects.
In her lab at MIT, former Navy fighter pilot Missy Cummings (with research assistant Jason Ryan) is helping the Navy bring unmanned concepts to reality. The two work on a digital version of the “ouija board” for tracking carrier deck operations. Her abiding message to military pilots: Automation is here to help.
The Big Ask, Laboratory News September 2010
Missy Cummings was one of the first female fighter pilots in the US Navy and got to fly F/A-18s for a living. Now, she’s a scientist, using her first hand experience of difficulties in automation in her own laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory News spoke to Missy to find out a bit more about her amazing experiences.
Online in Executive Travel: Missy Cummings, ... “We don’t need Chuck Yeager anymore.”
Prof. Cummings tells theSmithsonian Magazine "believes unmanned systems will ultimately replace even commercial pilots
FAA orders air traffic control management shake-up
Prof. Cummings comments on the shake-up in the air traffic control system.
Take Your Seats Controllers, The Movie is About to Begin
Christine Negroni riffs with Missy Cummings on the issue of boredom and distraction for air traffic controllers.
Straight from the Source: MIT's Missy Cummings Presents
On April 12, Dr. Mary (Missy) Cummings from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spoke as part of the Volpe Center's "Straight from the Source" presentation series.
Unmanned drones are in Japan -- where will they go next?
» link to full story on Ameican Public Media's Marketplace
Dr. Cummings's keynote speech for the 2011 International Society for Military Ethics conference
» link
to video stream
(It takes a while to load up so be patient in the beginning)
A UROP’s view of EECS: Carine Abi Akar
Carine Abi Akar is an undergraduate in 6-3 and a UROP in the Humans and Automation Lab working under CSAIL Professor Missy Cummings.
Wall Street Journal: Drones Get Ready to Fly, Unseen, Into Everyday Life
Brangelina beware. The paparazzi of Splash News are coming for you and you'll never see them coming.
Gary Morgan, chief executive of the celebrity-photo agency, said he'd like to be buzzing his quarry soon with silent, miniature drones mounted with tiny cameras. No more harassment from helicopters hovering in the Hollywood Hills...
Flying
Lessons - Blog
by Christine Negroni riffs on all things aviation and whatever else inspires
her to put words to page
Mapping the intersection of mind and computer
While automation may be causing a decrease in piloting skills. . . Missy Cummings a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology says there is another reason to be concerned about cockpit automation; boredom.
ICED 09 at Stanford University
Dan Roam moderates an Oxford-style debate between Missy Cummings, Gilman Louie, and Steve Perlman on "what makes good design" in honor of John Arnold, who created the notion of "comprehensive design". (October 26, 2009)
Harvard National Security Journal
Unmanned
Robotics & New Warfare: A Pilot/Professor’s Perspective
As the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Humans and Automation Laboratory, I was asked to comment from a technologist’s perspective at the recent symposium Drone Warfare: New Robotics & Targeted Killings on the panel “Unmanned Robotics & New Warfare.” My perspective is unique in that not only do I conduct millions of dollars of research in the development of technologies to enable one or more humans to control unmanned vehicles (i.e., robots) more easily, but I also look at these issues from the perspective of having flown advanced fighters in the U.S. Navy, namely the F/A-18 Hornet.
Dave Pitman awarded prize
The Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation awards 20 prizes each year to students from select schools in the U.S. and Europe. MIT was invited to participate in the awards program in 1996. Awards are presented for extraordinary scientific achievement in computers and communications technology, knowledge engineering and allied fields.
MIT news
In Profile: Missy Cummings
Former U.S. Naval fighter pilot aims to improve how humans and computersinteract.
Mary (Missy) Cummings was exhilarated the first time she landed a fighter jet aboard an aircraft carrier in 1989, but the young pilot's elation didn't last long. Seconds later, a close friend died while attempting the same landing on the back of the carrier.
Obama Pacman
Female MIT Professor Heads Development of Killer iPhone App
For Flying Military UAV / Drones
Apple’s iPhone is girly… That’s what Verizon’s failed Droid ad advertised (plus something about the Verizon Droid cutting phallic objects and being a homicidal robot). But wait, here is a girl who can beat up all the nerds Verizon is targeting with their latest vzw-iPhone-wannabe. Sorry Verizon, girls are not clueless.
Greater Boston show on WGBH
Distractions
in the Cockpit
Emily Rooney discusses the Northwest Airlines incident with Prof. Mary (Missy) Cummings
The Futurist
U.S. Deploys Unmanned Vehicles
"In August 2009, the U.S. military announced that Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a missile fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV. The CIA hailed the hit as a major success for U.S. attack-drone capabilities. According to the U.S. Air Force, the number of unmanned combat missions has increased 600% in the last six years. The U.S. military hopes to soon use drones for cargo transportation and refueling.
The Air Force and other agencies see enormous potential in the use of remotely controlled robots, perhaps with good reason. Unmanned vehicles could perform a wide variety of missions, according to Missy Cummings, director of the Humans and Automation Lab at MIT..."
Air Force Times:
MIT student named cadet of the year
Cadet Col. Ryan W. Castonia, a senior majoring in aerospace engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was recently named the 2009 Air Force Cadet of the Year.
Aviation Week:
Some UAV Makers Do Better Than Others
...Another approach to the problem of operating UAVs is to develop more specific training programs. While the U.S. Air Force will train more UAV operators this year than fighter and bomber pilots, former fighter pilot and current Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Missy Cummings doesn’t think the two have much in common. Speaking during a panel, she said UAV operators should be considered “more like air-traffic controllers” than pilots. “Anyone should be able to operate a UAV with minimal training,” she said. “The vehicles can fly themselves; what we need are people to manage these vehicles.”...
tuaw.com
Found Footage: Control an unmanned aerial vehicle with an iPhone
nextbigfuture.com
MIT Makes iPhone App for Controlling UAVs
gizmodo.com
Need To Fly A Military Drone? Yep, There's An iPhone App For That
MIT Professor Missy Cummings (a former F-18 Hornet Navy Pilot), and her team of 30 students and undergrads, have successfully demonstrated how an iPhone could be used to control an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV...
Wired.com - Danger Room
New Use for Your iPhone: Controlling Drones
MIT
prof Missy Cummings used to fly F/A-18 Hornet fighters for the Navy. “I spent
whole time complaining — who was the moron who designed this thing?” she
recalled. If you’ve ever peeked inside a fighter cockpit, you’ll understand
her gripe. Dials, displays and controls pack every nook and cranny. It’s
the farthest thing from ergonomic...
Inside the Pentagon’s-Inside the Air Force
"MIT Professor:
No Need for Traditional Pilots to Fly USAF UAV Fleet"
A leading researcher in the field of unmanned aerial systems control stations
is calling for the pilot-centric Air
Force to eliminate traditional, rated pilots from unmanned aerial systems
and instead develop a specialized career field of UAS operators...
Are enlisted airmen next to pilot UAVs?
"The Air Force is desperate for UAV pilots, yet it stands alone among the services in its policy that only officers are allowed to fly large unmanned aerial vehicles.
But next month, in a reversal of policy, 10 nonrated officers — those without aviation training — will begin instruction on flying Predator and Reaper UAVs. could enlisted airmen be next? ..."
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The following article appears in the 2007–2008 issue of Aero-Astro, the annual report/magazine of the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. © 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Supervising automation: humans on the loop
The human link to the control mechanism becomes critical as systems grow larger, with increasing numbers of components and additional operators, such as in an air traffic control environment.
Of Shadows and White Scarves
The U.S. Air Force believes the best people to fly UAVs are officers with experience in an actual cockpit. But operating an unmanned aircraft requires different skills than flying a jet, argues MIT professor M.L. Cummings. The Air Force should take a page from the Army’s UAV manual and put enlisted nonpilots in control.
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The Mobile Advanced Command and Control Station on the
road in June is highlinghted in the NUWC newsletter.
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MIT’s collaboration with NUWC on projects underway with the Tactical Tomahawk Weapon System Advanced Concepts Working Group
The sky's the limit
