Autonomous Robotic System Resiliency When the Unexpected Happens

The 45 SFS oversees force protection and base defense for Patrick Space Force Base (PSFB) / Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). The 45 SFS has explored autonomous quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles (Q-UGVs) to automate and augment perimeter security, free up manpower, reduce hazards to Defenders, and maintain an active security posture. Patrol environments are extremely dynamic and full of debris such as fallen trees, temporary construction, and wreckage that can disrupt the robots’ ability to autonomously navigate on predetermined pathways. Airmen must manually travel to a downed robot, troubleshoot the issue, reprogram the robot, and redeploy it. Depending on the location this can take hours and takes a Defender from their other duties. It disables a critical security monitoring asset, the robot, out of operation, blinding the base to threats and intrusions. From a command and control (C2) perspective, robot C2 is currently highly manual. Defenders are required to use handheld controllers to program and operate the robots which creates an additional manning burden that negates the robots’ intended time/manpower benefits. These challenges negate the intended benefits of the robots by creating additional inefficiencies and burdens. Because of the growing strategic importance of the Space Domain, ensuring safe and undisrupted space launch operations from PSFB/CCSFS is critical and any threat detection capabilities fielded must operate effectively.   45 SFS and the broader DAF force protection community needs an ability to plan robotic missions, execute these missions, and integrate the robotic sensors for base wide situational awareness remotely from the Base Defense Operations Center (BDOC). The 45 SFS recognizes the opportunity to use ARES Security’s AVERT Mission Planning and Operations (MPO) and the proposed RDT&E to enable security robots to autonomously improvise, adapt, and overcome obstacles encountered in the field so that security and disaster assessment missions can be accomplished. As PSFB/CCSFS, the DAF, and the broader DoD continue to embrace autonomous air, ground, and sea platforms, the need for enhanced C2 and AI-based learning will need to keep up with operational requirements from the field. This will ensure DAF/DoD bases remain defended and the DoD keeps pace with evolving technology in warfare.   AVERT MPO enables autonomous mission resiliency. The DAF approach to Resiliency is rooted in the quick recovery of mission capability when the unexpected happens. The DAF requires resiliency in their autonomous platforms and systems to maximize their performance in the field. Without resilience these autonomous platforms bog down Defenders’ time and negate any benefits the systems might bring. AVERT MPO enables a BDOC operator to remotely control the missions and operations of multiple Q-UGVs and introduces the means to overcome Q-UGV challenges without traveling to the location of the Q-UGV while on mission.