Autonomous Combat Ensemble (ACE) concept and its use in Urban Warfare

摘要

Work is reported on the study of an Autonomous Combat Ensemble (ACE ) concept that brings together the capabilities of Active Protection Systems (APS) and other platform mounted systems in an ad hoc multi-platform network. The purpose of such a system is to increase the survivability of each platform participating in the ensemble whilst at the same time reduce the probability that collateral damage in the form of death and injury to own side dismounted troops and innocent bystanders will occur. The system architecture for producing a coherent real world picture which enables the system to defend itself against a threat is examined. The possible architectures will range from a wholly distributed system of sensing and processing of data to inform the decision making of the system, to a configuration that is based on 'master' platforms controlling multiple 'slave' platforms. A mixture of these two architectures will also be taken into consideration. The issues of fusing a number of different world pictures from a range of sensors are examined. The architecture will allow a group of heterogeneous platforms to work together in a potentially modular system to make it possible for an Ad Hoc network to be created.