TITLE:
Central Command Architecture for High-Order Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems
AUTHORS:
Larry M. Silverberg, Chad Bieber
KEYWORDS:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Autonomy, Central Command, High-Order Systems, Deconfliction
JOURNAL NAME:
Intelligent Information Management,
Vol.6 No.4,
July
8,
2014
ABSTRACT: This paper is the first in a two-part series that introduces an
easy-to-implement central command architecture for high-order autonomous
unmanned aerial systems. This paper discusses the development and the second paper presents the flight test results. As
shown in this paper, the central command architecture consists of a central command block, an
autonomous planning block, and an autonomous flight controls block. The central
command block includes a staging process that converts an objective into tasks
independent of the vehicle (agent). The autonomous planning block contains a
non-iterative sequence of algorithms that govern routing, vehicle assignment,
and deconfliction. The autonomous flight controls block employs modern controls
principles, dividing the control input into a guidance part and a regulation part.
A novel feature of high-order central command, as this paper shows, is the
elimination of operator-directed vehicle tasking and the manner in which
deconfliction is treated. A detailed example illustrates different features of
the architecture.