Integration of Threat Information into the Route (RE-) Planning Task

2008 IEEE/AIAA 27th Digital Avionics Systems Conference

2008

Self Cite

Like manned aircraft, UAVs need the capability to timely detect and avoid other traffic. In case of a fully autonomous detect, sense and avoid system, every falsely identified threat will cause an unnecessary avoidance maneuver. Furthermore, information that is not explicitly available to the avoidance function cannot be taken into account when computing a maneuver. Given a situation where the time to conflict provides sufficient margin, involving the human operator in the detect, sense and avoid cycle can mitigate these issues. With the appropriate level of system authority, it is possible to combine collision avoidance function availability and continuity (e.g. in case of a control link failure) with the benefits that can be obtained from operator involvement. This paper discusses the integration of conflict probing data into a cockpit display of traffic information and into an enhanced/synthetic vision primary flight display. The resulting user interface concept is intended to support the operator in the assessment of the traffic situation, providing an adequate understanding of the impact of maneuvering on the future separation with traffic. Following this, the design of an experiment to explore the impact of the conflict probes on conflict assessment and maneuvering is presented. Results from an initial evaluation show an improvement in the assessment of the traffic situation, resulting in more effective and efficient conflict resolution maneuvers, and less unwarranted maneuvers.

Section: Esv Pfd Level 3 Traffic Sa Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and evaluation of a GUI for operator involvement in airborne conflict detection and resolution

2008 IEEE/AIAA 27th Digital Avionics Systems Conference

2008

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“…Concepts that have been addressed comprised improved operator interfaces to reduce the effort needed to specify changes to the flight plan and assess the impact of terrain, threats and other traffic [1,2] and the use of connectivity between UAV Control Stations (UCSs) to allow geographically separated navigation and payload management [3]. This paper focuses on the integration of already available data to provide the operator with the earlier mentioned coverage awareness.…”

Section: Figure 2 Isr-navigation Loop Closurementioning

confidence: 99%

Closing the ISR-Navigation loop

Goossens

29th Digital Avionics Systems Conference

2010

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Due to the lack of sufficiently accurate real-time information about the availability and quality of the data that is being collected to meet the ISR goals, opportunities to fill in coverage holes can hardly be detected during an on-going mission. The goal of the research presented in this paper is to provide the operator with so-called coverage awareness by providing the information needed to assess the availability of the collected data in reference to locations about which information is required. The concept relies on three elements. The main element is a so-called coverage database which is updated in real-time with information about the locations that have been surveyed, the sensors used and the time this occurred. The second element is a module that creates the content of the coverage database in realtime, using the vehicle and sensor state to compute the footprint covered by the surveillance sensor(s). The third element is the visualization module which is used to translate elements of the coverage database into a graphical overlay which can be conformally integrated with a conventional map. The first part of the paper discusses the rationale underlying the concept. Next, the coverage database, the real-time update process and the visualization concept are discussed in more detail. In the third part of the paper, the concept is illustrated using an example situation created in a simulation environment.

“…In an earlier research project, the integration of threat information into the route re-planning task has been addressed and a GUI was designed and implemented to support the operator in the assessment of a particular route option [23]. This GUI serves as the initial implementation for block #4 in Figure 2.…”

Section: Gui and Autonomous Function Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring network enabled concepts for U(C)AV payload driven navigation

2009 IEEE/AIAA 28th Digital Avionics Systems Conference

Goossens³

2009

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Mission effectiveness requires a bandwidth of the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop that is large enough to cope with the dynamics of the particular target environment. If not already, the current 'human' interface between the navigation, sensor and weapons functions is likely to become the bottleneck that limits the bandwidth of the OODA loop. Some scenarios foresee a future where this bottleneck is eliminated by removing the human operator from the OODA loop using UAVs that autonomously adjust their goals and plans based on the sensed state of the environment. The OODA loop comprises several nested loops, each with increasing bandwidth. Rather than removing the human operator from the OODA loop altogether, the concept explored in this paper aims to move the human operator to a lower bandwidth loop. The operator is supported by a system that dynamically performs a translation of target-payload parameters to a navigation/guidance plan with a level of execution authority that is determined by the dynamics of the environment. As such it represents an evolutionary approach from current systems that are automated up to the plan execution level and systems that autonomously adjust their goals. In this paper, the concept is explained and the options and rationale for the selection of the appropriate level of automation are discussed. Also, an overview of the current development activities is presented.