Mixed Initiative Command and Control of Autonomous Air Vehicles

Future military air operations will include multiple classes of unmanned air vehicles with both sensing and strike capabilities. The increased complexity of the associated command and control required for planning and execution of multi-target missions for these unmanned platforms was addressed by DARPA’s Mixed-Initiative Control of Automa-teams (MICA) Program. Under the MICA Program, the Draper Team developed and implemented a hierarchical architecture for mixed initiative command and control of multiple teams of autonomous air vehicles prosecuting large numbers of targets simultaneously. Our approach achieved dynamic replanning of the teams’ missions in response to a continuously evolving target set and knowledge of the enemy air defense threat environment.