Multi-Platform Manned/Unmanned System-Mission Planner/Controller

Compliance with the US Army directive to maximize the effectiveness and coordination of small unmanned ground vehicles (SUGV) in reconnaissance, surveillance and combat operations will require an intelligent, netcentric Mission Planning and Control System (MPCS). A set of supporting technologies will be implemented in this program to maximize the cooperative efficacy of the SUGV’s to carry out the mission plans formulated by the MPCS. First, a simplified, JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems), organic, multi-hop, wireless mesh network will be developed that facilitates fault tolerant peer-to-peer communication and the deployment of multi-platform mobile control agents, which decompose MPCS strategies into JAUS commands. The MPCS will be able to configure and distribute the multi-platform agent to arbitrary network nodes to optimize the communication and computational constraints of the field environment. Second, advanced control strategies utilizing economical sensor suites will be implemented that will provide a highly autonomous navigation capability for unmanned ground systems, thereby alleviating the soldier from performing tedious routine tasks. Third, an open architecture development environment implemented in this program will facilitate OEM sensor integration.