Terrain Height Evidence Sharing for Collaborative Autonomous Rotorcraft Operation

This paper describes recent results from a partnership between the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop, improve, and flight test a sensor, guidance, navigation, control, and real-time information sharing system to support collaborative autonomy and high performance nap-of-the-Earth helicopter flight. The emphasis here is on smart and selective sharing of terrain data which (1) minimizes the bandwidth consumed by obstacle/terrain-information-sharing between aircraft, (2) assigns an appropriate level of confidence to the data received from other heterogeneous aircraft, (3) is robust to sensor error and failures, and (4) is robust to entry and exit of vehicles from the network. Results from simulation and flight testing are provided.