Total Infrastructure and Mission Planning Suite (TIMPS)

While approaches exist to plan and operate autonomous unmanned systems (AUS) in isolated contexts, the inclusion and optimization of AUS in theater-level total force planning is unresolved. We propose TIMPS, a toolset of mission planning algorithms and HMI to enable theater-level planning and drive down manned support requirements for USW and other missions. TIMPS’ design is based on three key insights: 1. Kill chain and similar missions require continuity, which depends on access to infrastructure services (e.g. power/fuel, resupply, comms, C2/exfil, PNT, autonomy, battle management); 2. Optimization of mission assets, especially AUS, requires an understanding of the asset-specific planners and behaviors; and 3. The ability of human operators to specify and manage these complex missions requires specialized HMI tools and representations. TIMPS is thus focused on 1. Optimizing the placement of infrastructure and mission assets to ensure continuous mission execution, 2. Learning the behaviors and interfacing to asset-specific planners, and 3. Providing user-understandable HMI tools and representations. TIMPS will be adapted and integrated from SSCI technologies developed under DARPA programs, including CNAV, DASH, ACTUV, and CDMaST, along with multi-vehicle tasking algorithms from MIT’s Aerospace Controls Laboratory, represented by Professor Jonathan How as a consultant on this proposed effort.