Resilient Data for UAV Collaborative Localization and Secure Biometrics to Transform CSAR in GPS Denied Environments

The West Virginia University (WVU) Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources has created innovative Position/Navigation (PN) software for unmanned aerial and ground systems when operating in challenged environments, such as degraded or denied GPS. This distributed system with agents onboard and on the ground uses an Air Data Vehicle Network (ADVN) that requires Resilient Data Management (RDM) to secure and guarantee data integrity and privacy for onboard command and control and sensor data. Kinnami Software Corporation has developed a distributed RDM software platform, AmiShare, that secures data and assures their integrity wherever those data are stored or shared by mounting a secure data fabric on a mesh network, ideal for degraded environments. Our Phase I project proposed a technical architecture in which Kinnami’s RDM technology provides the reliable ADVN, required for trustworthy operation of WVU’s PN software across multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). 563d RQG wants to augment Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) capability by using UAVs in forward, hostile positions to locate isolated personnel and obtain their biometric data, despite degraded or denied GPS and radio spectrum. Currently, 563d RQG can only locate isolated personnel visually, and cannot communicate when the radio spectrum, and GPS, are degraded or denied. These are severe problems that are the top 3 strategic objectives for Personnel Recovery, Air Force-wide. This solution would address key focus areas for Agility Prime, for ORB/eVTOL/UAM operations in disaster relief, humanitarian aid and logistics supply missions, especially in degraded environments. WVU’s research specializes in robot localization technology for challenging environments, focusing on multi-sensor fusion, adaptive estimation algorithms for learning sensor uncertainties without prior knowledge, cooperative active perception to reduce localization errors through the motion planning ground robots and aerial robots, and the use learning algorithms to assess environmental conditions. Kinnami is a data security company, providing tools for securing data using client-side encryption. AmiShare’s distributed secure storage platform manages data security, protection & availability by defining policies for who may access data and where data are stored, providing access & protection everywhere on unreliable networks. This includes data centers, cloud, laptops, mobiles, removable drives & IoT. Data access & storage are audited and managed by administrators who define these policies, transparently to end-users. This Phase II STTR project proposes to adapt WVU’s and Kinnami’s software, to create a proof of concept of integrated software that allows UAVs to operate in a wider range of degraded environments, including in hostile airspace.