Samad, Tariq (Honeywell Labs), Bay, John (U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory)

Multiagent Sensing and Control: Surveillance and Reconnaissance for Urban Operations

Scheduled for presentation during the Mini-Symposium "Control of Mobile Multiagent Systems" (TuA13), Tuesday, July 25, 2006, 12:05−12:30, Room 101

17th International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, July 24-28, 2006, Kyoto, Japan

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 19, 2024

Abstract

Our principal objective in this paper is to help provide some grounding to researchers in systems and control interested in multiagent applications. We focus on one class of problems which is of increasing importance today: the use of multiple small UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for urban military operations. In this context, we consider the UAVs as agents which, through collective missions, can provide surveillance and reconnaissance information to the urban warfighter. We discuss some characteristics of the urban environments of interest and the kinds of services that are envisioned for teams of UAVs. Constraints associated with operational practice are also noted, such as tasking expectations that users will have of such systems and the need to integrate heterogeneous types of vehicles. We outline an approach to multi-UAV planning and control that addresses these requirements and constraints and we present a functional architecture. For verifying the operation of complex multiagent systems the use of statistical learning theory is suggested. Finally, we introduce the topic of (linguistic) pragmatics as an area for research, anticipating a need for future autonomous UAVs to reason and communicate based on their “belief” representations about other agents – and about the beliefs of those agents, recursively.