Project ACTION: Autonomous Control of Tethers via Integrated Operational Nodes

Heterogenous teaming offers significant benefits for unmanned and optionally-manned systems. Capitalizing on the relative strengths of various domains, integrating airborne platforms with ground or surface vehicles will extend sensor & communication ranges, promote earlier threat identification, and increase mission effectiveness.  Free-flying small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) have become capable and resilient to relatively adverse environments (via limited autonomy and on-board obstacle avoidance) but are limited in endurance and payload. Tethered systems have virtually unlimited endurance and increased bandwidth for sensor information but have not been demonstrated in dynamic environments on quick-moving vehicle pairs. A step change in capability of the combined ground vehicle (GV), tether, and sUAS is required to realize the benefits of heterogeneous multi-domain teaming without imposing untenable restrictions on maneuver and while maintaining an acceptable operator workload. The Autonomous Control of Tethers via Integrated Operational Nodes (ACTION) program will develop a hybrid autonomy architecture to solve key challenges in collaborative control of tethered robotic systems. The architecture will encompass sensor requirements, modeling, & analysis, perception, and sensor fusion to generate a shared situational awareness model, vehicle & tether planning and control systems, and overall system architecture analysis and trade space analysis. At the conclusion of ACTION development, government and industry customers will have access to a robust, modular, and portable shared autonomy architecture enabling responsive pairing of tethered UAS (TeUAS) with manned or robotic ground vehicles. Acting as unlimited-duration extended sensor platforms, the combined ground-tether-UAS system will automatically calculate and advise acceptable routes, manage launch, tether operations, & recovery, and inform system design for future adverse-environment tethered vehicle pairings.