COoperative Multiagent System for automated TArget Recognition by UAVs (COMSTAR)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) use has increased significantly, from rudimentary reconnaissance to complex missions. In the process of becoming smarter, UAVs have also become larger, more complex, and a lot more expensive. An alternative to the complex and costly UAV model is a new paradigm employing multiple, small or mini-UAVs, that operate in virtual swarms to achieve the complex objectives of today's reconnaissance missions. The advantage of this UAV swarm approach is clearly in the overall cost, increased redundancy, and a drastic reduction in single points of failure. The challenge is to develop swarming behaviors that can cope with the difficult conditions of combat. The team of 21st Century Systems, Inc. and the University of Nebraska, Omaha propose researching a concept called Co-Operative Multi-agent Automated Target Recognition UAVs (COMSTAR-UAV) to take advantage of advances in multi-agent system software ands the latest sensor and processing capabilities. The COMSTAR-UAV concept will be able to scale up efficiently in the number of UAVs deployed and in the amount of data collected and processed. Members of a COMSTAR-UAV swarm can congregate to exchange information and resources with each other making them more resilient to wireless network communication failures and loss of line of sight.