Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) are expected to dramatically alter the way future battles are fought. Autonomous collaborative operation of teams of UAVs is a key enabler for efficient and effective deployment of large numbers of UAVs under the U. S. Army's vision for Force Transformation. Autonomous Collaborative Mission Systems (ACMS) is an extensible architecture and collaborative behavior planning approach to achieve multi-UAV autonomous collaborative capability. Under this architecture, a rich set of autonomous collaborative behaviors can be developed to accomplish a wide range of missions. In this article, we present our simulation results in applying various autonomous collaborative behaviors developed in the ACMS to an integrated convoy protection scenario using a heterogeneous team of UAVs.

UAVs are critical to the U. S. Army's Force Transformation. Large numbers of UAVs will be employed per Future Combat System (FCS) Unit of Action (UoA). To relieve the burden of controlling and coordinating multiple UAVs in a given UoA, UAVs must operate autonomously and collaboratively while engaging in RSTA and other missions. Rockwell Scientific is developing Autonomous Collaborative Mission Systems (ACMS), an extensible architecture and behavior planning/collaboration approach, to enable groups of UAVs to operate autonomously in a collaborative environment. The architecture is modular, and the modules may be run in different locations/platforms to accommodate the constraints of available hardware, processing resources and mission needs. The modules and uniform interfaces provide a consistent and platform-independent baseline mission collaboration mechanism and signaling protocol across different platforms. Further, the modular design allows for the flexible and convenient extension to new autonomous collaborative behaviors to the ACMS. In this article, we first discuss our observations in implementing autonomous collaborative behaviors in general and under ACMS. Second, we present the results of our implementation of two such behaviors in the ACMS as examples.

UAVs are a key element of the U. S. Army's vision for Force Transformation, and are expected to be employed in large numbers per FCS Unit of Action (UoA). This necessitates a multi-UAV level of autonomous collaboration behavior capability that meets RSTA and other mission needs of FCS UoAs. Autonomous Collaborative Mission Systems (ACMS) is an extensible architecture and behavior planning / collaborative approach to achieve this level of capability. The architecture is modular and the modules may be run in different locations/platforms to accommodate the constraints of available hardware, processing resources and mission needs. The modules and uniform interfaces provide a consistent and platform-independent baseline mission collaboration mechanism and signaling protocol across different platforms. Further, the modular design allows flexible and convenient extension to new autonomous collaborative behaviors to the ACMS through: adding new behavioral templates in the Mission Planner component; adding new components in appropriate ACMS modules to provide new mission specific functionality; adding or modifying constraints or parameters to the existing components, or any combination of these. We describe the ACMS architecture, its main features on extensibility, and updates on current spiral development status and future plans for simulations in this report.

UAVs are a key element of the Army’s vision for Force Transformation, and are expected to be employed in large numbers per FCS Unit of Action (UoA). This necessitates a multi-UAV level of autonomous collaboration behavior capability that meets RSTA and other mission needs of FCS UoAs. Autonomous Collaborative Mission Systems (ACMS) is a scalable architecture and behavior planning / collaborative approach to achieve this level of capability. The architecture is modular and the modules may be run in different locations/platforms to accommodate the constraints of available hardware, processing resources and mission needs. The Mission Management Module determines the role of member autonomous entities by employing collaboration mechanisms (e.g., market-based, etc.), the individual Entity Management Modules work with the Mission Manager in determining the role and task of the entity, the individual Entity Execution Modules monitor task execution and platform navigation and sensor control, and the World Model Module hosts local and global versions of the environment and the Common Operating Picture (COP). The modules and uniform interfaces provide a consistent and platform-independent baseline mission collaboration mechanism and signaling protocol across different platforms. Further, the modular design allows flexible and convenient addition of new autonomous collaborative behaviors to the ACMS through: adding new behavioral templates in the Mission Planner component, adding new components in appropriate ACMS modules to provide new mission specific functionality, adding or modifying constraints or parameters to the existing components, or any combination of these. We describe the ACMS architecture, its main features, current development status and future plans for simulations in this report.

We present our initial study that addresses Quality of Service (QoS) needs for end-users and applications in network-centric operations (NCO). In network-centric operations, various systems that traditionally have operated independently now function jointly as a system of systems. In such an environment, networks are heterogeneous and may not share a common network layer protocol. However, existing QoS developments among the current networks assume the use of a common network layer protocol and a common QoS provision mechanism. Little attention has been paid to providing QoS service across heterogeneous networks made of potentially different network layer protocols and QoS provisions. Meanwhile, the QoS of an application providing services in NCO depends not only on traditional packet delivery QoS by networks but also on application layer processing. Our initial approach toward QoS modeling and management for network centric applications is as follows: We first define the application QoS concept under the system of systems paradigm wherein the impact on QoS from application layers is integrated with the traditional packet delivery QoS. We then investigate the potential methodologies to properly model and qualify/quantify the different network layer QoS provision mechanisms in heterogeneous networks. Operating on this modeling and analysis framework, we plan to develop a model-based performance assurance mechanism for effective management of application QoS across heterogeneous network regimes.