Persistent UNmanned Team (PUNT)

The Persistent UNmanned Team (PUNT) Phase II objective is to continue the development of  PUNT to address the problem of using UAS to persistently survey an area for an extended period of time, recharging as necessary and tracking identified targets at user request.   PUNT will provide a software package with the reasoning and coordination to achieve persistent surveillance by dealing with several computationally complex sub-problems, as well as dealing with distributed agents, noisy sensors and a complex environment.  PUNT will feature algorithms for persistent coverage, dynamic task allocation, efficient information sharing, adjustable autonomy and failure management that have been developed over a number of years and been shown to be computationally and communication efficient as well as effective in complex, dynamic, adversarial environments.  Existing programs will allow us to utilize an existing operator interface for rapid mission specification and mission control, fusion algorithms for combining sensor data in real-time and intelligent user interfaces to keep a single operator with effective oversight.  This will allow demonstrating unique technologies to enable tens of potentially heterogeneous robots to conduct persistent surveillance against a non-cooperative enemy maneuver elements across a variety of complex environments. Our technology will focus on providing assured multi-agent control of a heterogenous mix of robotic solutions working together to support situationally aware tactical maneuvers. In Phase II we will be able to demonstrate PUNT with physical UAVs in Phase II with our sub-contractor Transparent Sky.  The result will be an end-to-end working system, featuring scalable algorithms, practical software and mature user interfaces.  Specifically, we have the following overall objectives for Phase II:   (1) Refine and Expand Key Algorithms:  Continued technical improvements to the key algorithms, especially with respect to details that were omitted due to the scope of Phase I; (2) Integrate:  Complete architecture development and development of the overall mission concept.  Working with SMEs we will ensure the operational relevance and effectiveness of the overall system; and (3) Fly:  Validate the capability with a series of flight test demonstrations using between five and ten UAVs.  These tests will ensure that the algorithms and architecture is applicable to COTS hardware and autopilot capabilities.