UAV Grouping and Coordination Tactics for Ground Attack Missions

Grouping and coordination tactics for ground attack missions by a heterogeneous mix of reconnaissance, enemy suppression, and attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is presented. Dubins' paths are used to determine the optimal number of attack UAVs and their positional and heading freedoms, as functions of weapon seeker range and field of view. A generic battlefield scenario with layered defense is created and the tactics are evaluated on a Group Flyer simulation platform for both nominal and off-nominal conditions.

[1]  Wright-Patterson Afb,et al.  A Multiple UAV Simulation For Researchers , 2003 .

[2]  Andrew J. Sinclair,et al.  Optimal and Feedback Path Planning for Cooperative Attack , 2008 .

[3]  Atilla Dogan,et al.  A Multi-UAV simulation for formation reconfiguration , 2004 .

[4]  L. Dubins On plane curves with curvature. , 1961 .

[5]  D. Ghose,et al.  Search using multiple UAVs with flight time constraints , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[6]  Lincheng Shen,et al.  Genetic Algorithm Based Approach for Multi-UAV Cooperative Reconnaissance Mission Planning Problem , 2006, ISMIS.

[7]  Mark Campbell,et al.  Optimal Cooperative Reconnaissance Using Multiple Vehicles , 2007 .

[8]  Y Wu,et al.  Novel Approach to Position and Orientation Estimation in Vision-Based UAV Navigation , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[9]  Yong Liu,et al.  Pop-up threat models for persistent area denial , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[10]  Hyochoong Bang,et al.  Cooperative Control of Multiple UCAVs for Suppression of Enemy Air Defense , 2004 .

[11]  Eric N. Johnson,et al.  Minimum-Effort Guidance for Vision-Based Collision Avoidance , 2006 .

[12]  K.M. Passino,et al.  Cooperative task scheduling for networked uninhabited air vehicles , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[13]  Antonios Tsourdos,et al.  3D Dubins Sets Based Coordinated Path Planning for Swarm of UAVs , 2006 .

[14]  Jovan D. Boskovic,et al.  A Multi-Layer Autonomous Intelligent Control Architecture for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles , 2004, J. Aerosp. Comput. Inf. Commun..

[15]  Vladimir J. Lumelsky,et al.  Classification of the Dubins set , 2001, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[16]  M.J. Mears,et al.  Cooperative electronic attack using unmanned air vehicles , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005, American Control Conference, 2005..

[17]  Wright-Patterson Afb,et al.  Engineer-In-The-Loop Simulation for Cooperative Operations in Urban Environment , 2007 .

[18]  T. Shima,et al.  UAV team decision and control using efficient collaborative estimation , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005, American Control Conference, 2005..

[19]  Subong Sohn,et al.  Vision-based real-time target localization for single-antenna GPS-guided UAV , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[20]  F. Lamberti,et al.  A Novel Ego-Motion Compensation Strategy for Automatic Target Tracking in FLIR Video Sequences taken from UAVs , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[21]  Anthony J. Calise,et al.  Trajectory Optimization for n-Vehicles Using a Reduced Order Formulation , 2006 .

[22]  M. Pachter,et al.  Optimal Cooperative Sensing using a Team of UAVs , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[23]  S. Sukkarieh,et al.  Observability analysis and active control for airborne SLAM , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[24]  A. Tsourdos,et al.  Formalised hybrid control scheme for a UAV group using Dubins set and model checking , 2004, 2004 43rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37601).

[25]  Ian Postlethwaite,et al.  A UAV Waypoint Generator , 2004 .

[26]  Christos G. Cassandras,et al.  Cooperative Mission Control for Unmanned Air Vehicles , 2004 .

[27]  Pengcheng Zhan,et al.  Adaptive Mobile Sensor Positioning for Multi-Static Target Tracking , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[28]  T.A. Mazzuchi,et al.  Addressing uncertainty in UAV navigation decision-making , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[29]  S. Sukkarieh,et al.  Autonomous airborne navigation in unknown terrain environments , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[30]  M Suresh,et al.  Role of information and communication in redefining unmanned aerial vehicle autonomous control levels , 2010 .

[31]  Eric N. Johnson,et al.  A Compact Guidance, Navigation, and Control System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles , 2006, J. Aerosp. Comput. Inf. Commun..

[32]  L. Dubins On Curves of Minimal Length with a Constraint on Average Curvature, and with Prescribed Initial and Terminal Positions and Tangents , 1957 .

[33]  Ian Postlethwaite,et al.  Real-Time Optimal Time-Critical Target Assignment for UAVs , 2007 .

[34]  Steven Rasmussen,et al.  Enabling Inter-Vehicle Communication Modeling in MultiUAV Using the HLA , 2004 .

[35]  V. Kapila,et al.  UAV optimal path planning using C-C-C class paths for target touring , 2004, 2004 43rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37601).

[36]  David G. Kirkpatrick,et al.  Finding curvature-constrained paths that avoid polygonal obstacles , 2007, SCG '07.

[37]  Steven M. LaValle,et al.  Time-optimal paths for a Dubins airplane , 2007, 2007 46th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[38]  L.A.B. Torres,et al.  Development of a Hand-Launched Small UAV for Ground Reconnaissance , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.