Multi-Agent Based Small Unit Effects Planning and Collaborative Engagement with Unmanned Systems

Armed Unmanned Systems (UMSs) will be common in the Future Force Battlespace. In order to make the most efficient use of manpower, control modes with more UMS autonomy are necessary. Numerica envisions a system of multiple aerial and ground vehicles that intelligently prioritizes, tracks, and engages targets in complex environments. The collaborative control algorithm on each UMS will plan its actions based on shared knowledge of targets, platform capabilities, and situational awareness. Local UMS teams will exchange information to resolve conflicts in their plans of action. These actions will then be dynamically re-planned in response to evolving threats and changes in situational awareness. Operators will be able to preempt engagement plans to influence the behavior of the UMS team. Numerica's approach to decentralized collaboration is unique because it simultaneously addresses the limitations in communication resources and UMS onboard processing. To ensure a successful outcome of this effort, Numerica will leverage its expertise in areas such as network-centric tracking, signal processing, communication resource management, and discrete optimization. The value of Numerica's approach to decentralized collaborative engagement using autonomous UMS teams will be illustrated through a proof-of-principle simulation in Phase I and a sensor/control, hardware demonstration in the Phase I option.