AUTONOMOUS TRACKING USING COLLABORATING AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES IN A COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT

摘要

The Airborne Vehicle Autonomous Targeting (AVATar) system is a fully autonomous, multi-vehicle airborne tracking and targeting system designed to rapidly supply actionable intelligence to operators for a variety of missions – from military laser targeting to wildlife management to first responder situational awareness. Multiple unmanned air system (UAS) vehicles collaborate to most efficiently pursue and track multiple targets with no human-in-the-loop for vehicle or camera control. These AVATar trackers form ad hoc coalitions that communicate over asynchronous, delay-tolerant communication networks, improving system response, adaptability, and robustness over traditional centralized systems. For these missions, each UAS optimizes its position relative to the target. In the case of multiple trackers and multiple targets, the multiple UASs communicate and collaborate to optimize spatial allocation and deconflict target assignments. All UAS operations are autonomous, including the tracking, targeting, video capture, and multi-UAS cooperation. Operators receive image feeds and target location information, and, if necessary, can retask the UASs.