IGF::OT::IGF AREA-I, INCORPORATED PERSONNEL HAVE LED THE DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND FLIGHT TESTING OF FOURTEE…

Public award description

IGF::OT::IGF AREA-I, INCORPORATED PERSONNEL HAVE LED THE DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND FLIGHT TESTING OF FOURTEEN UNMANNED AIRCRAFT, ONE MANNED AIRCRAFT, AND NUMEROUS ADVANCED GUIDANCE, CONTROL, AND AVIONICS PACKAGES. AREA-I HAS CONTINUED THIS TRADITION IN ITS DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR MULTI-AGENT PLANNING, OR REMAP, GUIDANCE AND NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR UNMANNED AIRCRAFT. THE REMAP SYSTEM, WHOSE CORE FUNCTION IS TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE OPERATOR WORKLOAD BY PROVIDING MISSION-DRIVEN AUTONOMY TO UNMANNED AIRCRAFT IN SINGLE- AND MULTI-AGENT SCENARIOS, HAS ALREADY UNDERGONE EXTENSIVE HARDWARE-IN-THE-LOOP SIMULATION-BASED EVALUATIONS AND THE WORK PROPOSED HEREIN WILL FURTHER MATURE THE REMAP TECHNOLOGY THROUGH ACTUAL FLIGHT-BASED EVALUATIONS ON AREA-I AIRCRAFT. CORE CAPABILITIES PROVIDED BY THE REMAP SYSTEM INCLUDE: 1) A SMALL, LIGHTWEIGHT, INEXPENSIVE AVIONICS PACKAGE THAT PROVIDES REAL-TIME MISSION-DRIVEN GUIDANCE CAPABILITIES TO UNMANNED AIR VEHICLES 2) A SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE THAT IS PLATFORM AND AUTOPILOT AGNOSTIC AND CAN THEREFORE BE UTILIZED BY A WIDE ARRAY OF AIRCRAFT WITH VARYING PERFORMANCE LEVELS 3) A MULTI-AGENT PLANNING AND CONTROL ALGORITHM TO ALLOW MULTIPLE AIRCRAFT TO COORDINATE AND THEREBY MAXIMIZE MISSION CAPABILITIES AND RESULTS 4) AIRCRAFT AND OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE CAPABILITIES, INCLUDING ADS-B IN INTEGRATION, PROVIDING AUTONOMOUS AVOIDANCE MANEUVERS OR OPERATOR WARNINGS 5) A MISSION PLANNING TOOLBOX TO PROVIDE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AND MISSION MANAGEMENT TO OPERATORS, USABLE AS A STAND-ALONE SYSTEM OR INTEGRATED WITH EXISTING MISSION PLANNING TOOLS SUCH AS NASA'S AIRBORNE SCIENCE MISSION TOOLS SUITE