Airborne Vision and Autonomy (AVA) for Counter-sUAS

SSCI proposes an air to air system to detect, positively identify, accurately localize, and follow drone targets (DoD Group 1 small UAS, sUAS) using a lightweight software/hardware payload for sUAS. By putting sensors and automation onboard sUAS, the system can maneuver to achieve higher pixels-on-target and better viewing geometry than ground sensors, enabling positive identification and automated tracking and following. The system responds fully autonomously to investigate initial tracks, possibly unconfirmed and with significant location uncertainty, from external detection systems. This addresses multiple elements of the find-fix-track-target-engage-assess chain. This solution is an extension to SSCI's FOCUS technology. FOCUS, started under the DARPA Squad-X Core Technologies BAA and matured in follow-on programs, implements this for ground targets including persons and vehicles, including automated response to cues, up-close target investigation and identification, and tracking. Phase 1 is designed to quickly check two main risks: whether FOCUS deep classification methods perform well with sUAS targets, and whether the increased maneuvering capabilities of sUAS can be addressed by FOCUS search and track algorithms. In Phase 2 we relax certain Phase 1 assumptions, perform flight demonstrations at test ranges, and build payload prototypes.