Mission Planning Application for Submarine Operations and Risk Management

Adaptive Methods and the Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory Laboratory (PSU/ARL) propose to develop software systems designed for transition to government UUVs, integrated with an existing PSU/ARL Large Displacement UUV as a surrogate to demonstrate autonomous operation for relevant UUV mission use cases. UUVs will be assigned missions to autonomously operate in large areas and may encounter previously unknown obstacles and events which require autonomous re-planning of course of action parameters, such as routes, depths or operational modes, in order to accomplish mission objectives. In light of this uncertainty, re-planning must optimize over the UUV objectives (e.g. minimize counter detection) and account for the resources available, such as how a new COA impacts power usage, while avoiding known and discovered obstacles. In order to address these operational needs, Adaptive Methods and the PSU Applied Research Laboratory propose to develop an Autonomy Framework suitable for use in UUV applications components compatible with that framework that demonstrate situation awareness and provides recommendation for near term COAs based on tactical situation, mission objectives, and platform risk assessments.