Automated planning for collaborative UAV systems

Mission planning for collaborative Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS:s) is a complex topic which involves trade-offs between the degree of centralization or decentralization required, the degree of abstraction in which plans are generated, and the degree to which such plans are distributed among participating UAS: s. In realistic environments such as those found in natural and man-made catastrophes where emergency services personnel are involved, a certain degree of centralization and abstraction is necessary in order for those in charge to understand and eventually sign off on potential plans. It is also quite often the case that unconstrained distribution of actions is inconsistent with the loosely coupled interactions and dependencies which arise between collaborating systems. In this article, we present a new planning algorithm for collaborative UAS: s based on combining ideas from forward chaining planning with partial-order planning leading to a new hybrid partial order forward-chaining (POFC) framework which meets the requirements on centralization, abstraction and distribution we find in realistic emergency services settings.