Bio-Inspired Battlefield Environmental Situation Awareness

In recent years the number, capabilities, and types of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has grown dramatically, resulting in an increase in the variety and complexity of mission scenarios for these vehicles. The successful proliferation of UAV assets into missions, such as convoy protection, reconnaissance, surveillance, and targeting, has established an undeniable value that UAVs contribute to the war fighter in the combat arena. With micro-UAVs among the newest class of UAVs added for deployment at the squadron level the modern war fighter is presented with unprecedented situational awareness capabilities. However, with increased capability come increased demand for time and attention to fly and monitor micro-UAV assets. Areté will provide Force Multiplication of micro-UAV assets by developing an autonomous sensing and navigation system for micro-UAVs based on the innovative integration of contemporary bio-inspired technologies. Core design components will consist of a stereoscopic vision system, an insect-inspired visual processing architecture, an adaptable neural-inspired navigation system, and state of the art environmental sensors.