The S-92 is to receive a major upgrade, becoming the first production aircraft to incorporate Sikorsky's Matrix autonomous technology, as the manufacturer seeks to cut the aircraft's operating costs and boost its competitiveness against the growing fleet of super medium helicopters.

The upgraded aircraft, which will be known as the S-92B, will also receive a new main gearbox, enlarged cabin windows, and a new cabin door that will be suitable for both offshore transport and search-and-rescue (SAR) operations.

But it's the incorporation of Phase One Matrix technology that perhaps most represents a step change for the type, bringing advanced computing power to the aircraft to take it further along the road towards autonomy.

"That's going to be the infrastructure that allows us to start that autonomy portfolio suite and introduce it into the commercial market", David Martin, Sikorsky's market segment leader for oil and gas, told Vertical. "We see a real evolution in the cockpit where the crew is [performing] very, very capable systems process monitoring, man- aging the system. The aircraft can take care of a lot more of the mundane tasks."

Sikorsky announced the launch of the Matrix Technology program in 2013, and has been maturing it on the Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft (see our flight report on p. 56) and an optionally piloted UH-60A Black Hawk.

In the S-92B, the technology is present in the form of Rig Approach 2.0, an evolution of the Rig Approach available for the existing S-92, and SuperSearch, which works in tandem with the aircraft's SAR automatic flight control system (AFCS).

Rig Approach allows a crew to plan and program their offshore mission and destination before they take off, with the aircraft then flying that mission profile up to a half mile from a helideck. With Rig Approach 2.0, the aircraft will be certified to fly to within a quarter mile of the helideck. "Ultimately, the future plan for that product is to - when we get the right... certification and customer comfort level -go all the way down to an automated landing on the helideck," said Martin.

Super Search uses an advanced algorithm, developed by Sikorsky's Innovations lab, to search within a designated block for an object, such as a life raft or a boat. According to Sikorsky, its simulations have shown Super Search can find these objects up to 50 percent faster than a traditional search pattern.

" It is amazing to watch these simulations run, and it always works - they're always finding these objects faster," said Martin. " This is an example of where autonomy brings value."

In terms of future applications for Matrix technology, Martin said "the market will determine how and when" it appears in other platforms.