Vector-Enabled Swarm Tactical Application (VESTA)

The increasing use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in operational settings presents opportunities to provide US Forces with a tactical advantage over adversaries, particularly in conducting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to improve situational awareness. Today, most UAS in service are standalone vehicles that are piloted remotely. However, the use of autonomous swarms in the battlefield will provide Warfighters with an improved capability for performing ISR. Charles River Analytics has developed a prototype technology for swarms of UAS to coordinate their ability to conduct ISR in a region. Through the proposed effort, we will conduct a validation study of transitioning this prototype to operational settings and increasing its technical readiness level, and we will provide demonstrations of the capability and the human-swarm interface necessary to manage it. Charles River Analytics proposes to pursue the transition of our VectorNav capability, prototyped under previous work for the DARPA OFFSET program, through our proposed effort, Vector-Enabled Swarm Tactical Application (VESTA), in which we will deliver a validation study, demonstrate a minimum viable product (MVP), and aggressively pursue transition during Phase I.