The ThermoPilot project has been started in october 2010 and lot of real tests flights have been already done in summer/spring 2011 above the fields and also in high mountains.

The ThermoPilot is able to do a cross country soaring mission and it is also able to do a slope soaring pattern pointed by two GPS points. These two points are pointed in flight by the pilot along the slope and then the glider is able to flight itself as long as the dynamics upwards are still actives. The ThermoPilot has been tested in flight during the summer 2011 in French Alps.

Here a video a the new firmware version (2012) which uses a new alogorith (MLA) tested in HIL mode on Xplane v9.70 during a full autonomous slope soaring flight in high mountains.

More infos at:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arduplane-v2-full-autonomous-flight-hil-simulation-of-a-nimbus-4m