Robotics company Merlin says it has flown the first three flights in its autonomous control program on the KC-135. The flights were conducted at the Pittsburgh Air National Guard Base under a waiver from the Air Force. Merlin has contracts to develop autonomous flight systems for several Air Force platforms and the 1960s-era tankers are the first in line. Merlin said the first flights gathered data on how to design and fine tune the robotic controls.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/merlin-tests-autonomous-flight-controls-on-kd-135