Unmanned Water Vehicle Maneuver Recommendation (UWVMR)

In this project Wagner Associates will develop an Unmanned Water Vehicle Maneuver Recommendation (UWVMR) system that processes all available data, dynamically generates a SA Picture and a maneuver recommendation plan, and provides this information to the UWV control system (and potentially alerts a UWV operator). A key capability provided by UWVMR will be the ability to fuse data obtained by off-board systems (e.g., friendly aircraft and ship radars and E-O systems, Digital Nautical Charts (DNCs), detections of mines or mine-like objects) with UWV sensor data in real-time. To minimize the risk and cost of developing UWVMR, we will leverage algorithms and software developed in our Object Avoidance for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (OAUSV) project for Naval Surface Warfare Center-Dahlgren Division (NSWC-DD). The primary algorithmic techniques that will be utilized in UWVMR are non-Gaussian and multiple hypothesis data registration and fusion, Bayesian inferential reasoning, and non-Gaussian route optimization. In Phase I of this project we will show the feasibility of creating the UWVMR, and we will also describe how we will interface to the UWV control system, and provide both the UWV control system and its operator (if desired) with recommendations concerning how to avoid potentially threatening objects in the water.