Cooperative Search, Acquisition and Tracking by UAV Teams

ALPHATECH and MIT propose to extend existing real-time mission manager, path planning, and video tracking technologies developed under DARPA, AFOSR, and AFRL programs to solve the Cooperative Search Acquisition and Track (CSAT) problem for multiple moving targets. This CSAT mission presents difficult challenges combining different types of tasking: area search, periodic track maintenance, focused viewing for classification and continuous critical track monitoring. MIT's multi-UAV flight testbed, sponsored by AFOSR DURIP, will be used for the Phase I proof-of-concept simulations and the Phase II flight demonstrations. Algorithm extensions will focus on balancing multiple mission objectives, incorporating uncertainty due to moving targets, and complex sensor viewing constraints. Our CSAT controller will integrate ALPHATECH's unique multi-platform video tracking algorithms with MIT's and ALPHATECH's mission and cooperative path planning technologies. The video tracking algorithms perform sensor stabilization, data association and tracking in a common coordinate frame, allowing the use of low-cost sensor hardware options. The Phase I objectives are to extend and tailor the planning and control algorithms to CSAT, integrate these algorithms with the video tracking technologies, and demonstrate them using simulated environments. The Phase I proof-of-concept will be expanded into flight demonstrations in Phase II using MIT's multi-UAV testbed.