Platform routing and data fusion technologies for Cooperative ISR

In order for collaborative Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) to become a viable mission for an ever-expanding heterogonous UAV fleet, UAV autonomy must achieve autonomy level four (i.e. on-board route re-planning) and beyond (i.e. increasingly complex group coordination), so that operators are not overwhelmed with routine operational decisions. For UAV platform routing, current point-to-point routing techniques are not sufficient. New techniques must be developed that allow UAVs to autonomously generate and update routes during flight dynamically. The control strategy must therefore automate or self-manage as much of the low- and mid-level planning as possible to reduce the operator workload and provide coordination at the mission level to ensure that mission objectives are accomplished. To address this challenge, 3 Phoenix, Inc. and the Applied Research Laboratory / Pennsylvania State University have teamed to develop dynamic routing and multi-objective scheduling algorithms for implementation within a standards-based real-time data fusion and intelligent control C4ISR architecture. This two-tier approach will simultaneously reduce operator workload and increase fleet efficiency by enabling UAVs to autonomously plan their routes in accordance with the current tactical picture.