Collaborative Engagement with Unmanned Systems

Procerus Technologies and Renaissance Sciences are teaming together to provide critical technologies for collaborative engagement of ground targets by platoons of unmanned systems (UMS). We have developed a cooperative control strategy for platoons of UMS with specific focus on unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Using this strategy we have demonstrated, using hardware-in-the-loop simulation, the ability to control the platoon to follow paths in formation in the presence of disturbances such as wind, and the ability to avoid vehicle collisions within the platoon. We have also performed flight tests demonstrating the ability to track and geo-locate targets of interest. We have performed preliminary demonstrations showing the ability to use electro-optical (EO) video to guide UAVs into ground targets. The overriding goal of this Phase II SBIR is to move the relevant capabilities toward commercialization and field implementation. We will work to implement our cooperative control strategy in hardware allowing flight test demonstrations of these capabilities to be performed. We will further develop and refine our vision-based target prosecution technology to create a fieldable product. These efforts will be carried out using standardized communications and networking protocols to enable easy integration into current Army UMS platforms.