Unmanned systems interoperability standards

Over the past several years, there has been rapid growth in the development and employment of unmanned systems in military and civilian endeavors. Some military organizations have expressed concern that these systems are being fielded without sufficient capabilities to interoperate with existing systems. Despite recognition of this requirement, interoperability efforts remain diverse and disjointed across the United States and internationally. The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey, California, was sponsored by the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (JGRE) in Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16) to explore (1) enhancement of robotics education; (2) improved representation of robotic systems in combat simulations; and (3) interoperability standards for military robotics systems. This report discusses work performed in FY16 to identify current and emerging interoperability standards for unmanned systems, including interactions of robotic systems with command and control (C2) and simulation systems. The investigation included assessment of the applicability of standardization activities in the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) in its development of the Phase 1 Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) and currently in-progress Command and Control Systems - Simulation Systems Interoperation (C2SIM) standardization efforts. The report provides a recommended approach, standards, activities, and timetable for a cross-system communications roadmap.Secretary of Defense Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise, 3090 Defense Pentagon, Room 5C756, Washington, DC 20301Office of the Secretary of Defense Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review and First In-field Experimentation

Complex maritime missions, both above and below the surface, have traditionally been carried out by manned surface ships and submarines equipped with advanced sensor systems. Unmanned Maritime Vehicles (UMVs) are increasingly demonstrating their potential for improving existing naval capabilities due to their rapid deployability, easy scalability, and high reconfigurability, offering a reduction in both operational time and cost. In addition, they mitigate the risk to personnel by leaving the man far-from-the-risk but in-the-loop of decision making. In the long-term, a clear interoperability framework between unmanned systems, human operators, and legacy platforms will be crucial for effective joint operations planning and execution. However, the present multi-vendor multi-protocol solutions in multi-domain UMVs activities are hard to interoperate without common mission control interfaces and communication protocol schemes. Furthermore, the underwater domain presents significant challenges that cannot be satisfied with the solutions developed for terrestrial networks. In this paper, the interoperability topic is discussed blending a review of the technological growth from 2000 onwards with recent authors' in-field experience; finally, important research directions for the future are given. Within the broad framework of interoperability in general, the paper focuses on the aspect of interoperability among UMVs not neglecting the role of the human operator in the loop. The picture emerging from the review demonstrates that interoperability is currently receiving a high level of attention with a great and diverse deal of effort. Besides, the manuscript describes the experience from a sea trial exercise, where interoperability has been demonstrated by integrating heterogeneous autonomous UMVs into the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) network, using different robotic middlewares and acoustic modem technologies to implement a multistatic active sonar system. A perspective for the interoperability in marine robotics missions emerges in the paper, through a discussion of current capabilities, in-field experience and future advanced technologies unique to UMVs. Nonetheless, their application spread is slowed down by the lack of human confidence. In fact, an interoperable system-of-systems of autonomous UMVs will require operators involved only at a supervisory level. As trust develops, endorsed by stable and mature interoperability, human monitoring will be diminished to exploit the tremendous potential of fully autonomous UMVs

Development of a System Architecture for Unmanned Systems Across Multiple Domains

In the unmanned systems industry, there is no common standard for systems components, connections and relations. Such a standard is never likely to exist. Needless to say, a system needs to have the components that are required for the application, however, it is possible to abstract the common functionality out of an individual implementation. This thesis presents a universal unmanned systems architecture that collects all of the common features of an unmanned system and presents them as a set of packages and libraries that can be used in any domain of unmanned system operation. The research and design of the universal architecture results in a well-defined architecture that can be used and implemented on any unmanned system. The AUVSI student competitions are specifically analyzed and it is shown how this universal architecture can be applied to the challenges posed by the competitions in different domains

Reference Model for Interoperability of Autonomous Systems

This thesis proposes a reference model to describe the components of an Un-manned Air, Ground, Surface, or Underwater System (UxS), and the use of a single Interoperability Building Block to command, control, and get feedback from such vehicles. The importance and advantages of such a reference model, with a standard nomenclature and taxonomy, is shown. We overview the concepts of interoperability and some efforts to achieve common refer-ence models in other areas. We then present an overview of existing un-manned systems, their history, characteristics, classification, and missions. The concept of Interoperability Building Blocks (IBB) is introduced to describe standards, protocols, data models, and frameworks, and a large set of these are analyzed. A new and powerful reference model for UxS, named RAMP, is proposed, that describes the various components that a UxS may have. It is a hierarchical model with four levels, that describes the vehicle components, the datalink, and the ground segment. The reference model is validated by showing how it can be applied in various projects the author worked on. An example is given on how a single standard was capable of controlling a set of heterogeneous UAVs, USVs, and UGVs

Migration from Teleoperation to Autonomy via Modular Sensor and Mobility Bricks

In this thesis, the teleoperated communications of a Remotec ANDROS robot have been reverse engineered. This research has used the information acquired through the reverse engineering process to enhance the teleoperation and add intelligence to the initially automated robot. The main contribution of this thesis is the implementation of the mobility brick paradigm, which enables autonomous operations, using the commercial teleoperated ANDROS platform. The brick paradigm is a generalized architecture for a modular approach to robotics. This architecture and the contribution of this thesis are a paradigm shift from the proprietary commercial models that exist today. The modular system of sensor bricks integrates the transformed mobility platform and defines it as a mobility brick. In the wall following application implemented in this work, the mobile robotic system acquires intelligence using the range sensor brick. This application illustrates a way to alleviate the burden on the human operator and delegate certain tasks to the robot. Wall following is one among several examples of giving a degree of autonomy to an essentially teleoperated robot through the Sensor Brick System. Indeed once the proprietary robot has been altered into a mobility brick; the possibilities for autonomy are numerous and vary with different sensor bricks. The autonomous system implemented is not a fixed-application robot but rather a non-specific autonomy capable platform. Meanwhile the native controller and the computer-interfaced teleoperation are still available when necessary. Rather than trading off by switching from teleoperation to autonomy, this system provides the flexibility to switch between the two at the operator’s command. The contributions of this thesis reside in the reverse engineering of the original robot, its upgrade to a computer-interfaced teleoperated system, the mobility brick paradigm and the addition of autonomy capabilities. The application of a robot autonomously following a wall is subsequently implemented, tested and analyzed in this work. The analysis provides the programmer with information on controlling the robot and launching the autonomous function. The results are conclusive and open up the possibilities for a variety of autonomous applications for mobility platforms using modular sensor bricks

Wide-Area Surveillance System using a UAV Helicopter Interceptor and Sensor Placement Planning Techniques

This project proposes and describes the implementation of a wide-area surveillance system comprised of a sensor/interceptor placement planning and an interceptor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) helicopter. Given the 2-D layout of an area, the planning system optimally places perimeter cameras based on maximum coverage and minimal cost. Part of this planning system includes the MATLAB implementation of Erdem and Sclaroff’s Radial Sweep algorithm for visibility polygon generation. Additionally, 2-D camera modeling is proposed for both fixed and PTZ cases. Finally, the interceptor is also placed to minimize shortest-path flight time to any point on the perimeter during a detection event. Secondly, a basic flight control system for the UAV helicopter is designed and implemented. The flight control system’s primary goal is to hover the helicopter in place when a human operator holds an automatic-flight switch. This system represents the first step in a complete waypoint-navigation flight control system. The flight control system is based on an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. This system is implemented using a general-purpose personal computer (GPPC) running Windows XP and other commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. This setup differs from other helicopter control systems which typically use custom embedded solutions or micro-controllers. Experiments demonstrate the sensor placement planning achieving \u3e90% coverage at optimized-cost for several typical areas given multiple camera types and parameters. Furthermore, the helicopter flight control system experiments achieve hovering success over short flight periods. However, the final conclusion is that the COTS IMU is insufficient for high-speed, high-frequency applications such as a helicopter control system

The CAT Vehicle Testbed: A Simulator with Hardware in the Loop for Autonomous Vehicle Applications

This paper presents the CAT Vehicle (Cognitive and Autonomous Test Vehicle) Testbed: a research testbed comprised of a distributed simulation-based autonomous vehicle, with straightforward transition to hardware in the loop testing and execution, to support research in autonomous driving technology. The evolution of autonomous driving technology from active safety features and advanced driving assistance systems to full sensor-guided autonomous driving requires testing of every possible scenario. However, researchers who want to demonstrate new results on a physical platform face difficult challenges, if they do not have access to a robotic platform in their own labs. Thus, there is a need for a research testbed where simulation-based results can be rapidly validated through hardware in the loop simulation, in order to test the software on board the physical platform. The CAT Vehicle Testbed offers such a testbed that can mimic dynamics of a real vehicle in simulation and then seamlessly transition to reproduction of use cases with hardware. The simulator utilizes the Robot Operating System (ROS) with a physics-based vehicle model, including simulated sensors and actuators with configurable parameters. The testbed allows multi-vehicle simulation to support vehicle to vehicle interaction. Our testbed also facilitates logging and capturing of the data in the real time that can be played back to examine particular scenarios or use cases, and for regression testing. As part of the demonstration of feasibility, we present a brief description of the CAT Vehicle Challenge, in which student researchers from all over the globe were able to reproduce their simulation results with fewer than 2 days of interfacing with the physical platform.Comment: In Proceedings SCAV 2018, arXiv:1804.0340

Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle (AUV) Workbench Rehearsal and Replay: Mapping Diverse Vehicle Telemetry Outputs to Common XML Data Archives

15th International Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology (UUST), Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute (AUSI), Durham New Hampshire, 19-22 August 2007.NPS AUV Workbench: Paper

The CAT Vehicle Testbed: A Simulator with Hardware in the Loop for Autonomous Vehicle Applications

This paper presents the CAT Vehicle (Cognitive and Autonomous Test Vehicle) Testbed: a research testbed comprised of a distributed simulation-based autonomous vehicle, with straightforward transition to hardware in the loop testing and execution, to support research in autonomous driving technology. The evolution of autonomous driving technology from active safety features and advanced driving assistance systems to full sensor-guided autonomous driving requires testing of every possible scenario. However, researchers who want to demonstrate new results on a physical platform face difficult challenges, if they do not have access to a robotic platform in their own labs. Thus, there is a need for a research testbed where simulation-based results can be rapidly validated through hardware in the loop simulation, in order to test the software on board the physical platform. The CAT Vehicle Testbed offers such a testbed that can mimic dynamics of a real vehicle in simulation and then seamlessly transition to reproduction of use cases with hardware. The simulator utilizes the Robot Operating System (ROS) with a physics-based vehicle model, including simulated sensors and actuators with configurable parameters. The testbed allows multi-vehicle simulation to support vehicle to vehicle interaction. Our testbed also facilitates logging and capturing of the data in the real time that can be played back to examine particular scenarios or use cases, and for regression testing. As part of the demonstration of feasibility, we present a brief description of the CAT Vehicle Challenge, in which student researchers from all over the globe were able to reproduce their simulation results with fewer than 2 days of interfacing with the physical platform.National Science Foundation; Air Force Office of Scientific Research [1253334, 1262960, 1419419, 1446435, 1446690, 1446702, 1446715 1521617]Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

JAUS to EtherCAT Bridge: Toward Real-Time and Deterministic Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems

The Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) is a communication standard that allows for interoperability between Unmanned Vehicles (UVs). Current research indicates that JAUS-compliant systems do not meet real-time performance guidelines necessary for internal systems in UVs. However, there is a lack of quantitative data illustrating the performance shortcomings of JAUS or clear explanations on what causes these performance issues or comparisons with existing internal communication systems. In this research, we first develop a basic C++ implementation of JAUS and evaluate its performance with quantitative data and compare the results with published performance data of Controller Area Network (CAN) to determine the feasibility of the JAUS standard. Our results indicate that the main reason of JAUS’s poor performance lies in the latency inherent in the hierarchical structure of JAUS and the overhead of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) messages, which has been used with JAUS and is slower than the high-speed CAN. Additionally, UDP has no scheduling mechanism, which makes it virtually impossible to guarantee messages meeting their deadlines. Considering the slow and nondeterministic JAUS communication from subsystems to components, which is JAUS Level 3 compliance, we then propose a solution by bringing Ethernet for Control Automation Technology (EtherCAT) to add speed, deterministic feature, and security. The JAUS-EtherCAT mapping, which we called a JEBridge, is implemented into nodes and components. Both quantitative and qualitative results are provided to show that JEBridge and JAUS Level 3 compliance can bring not only interoperability but also reasonable performance to UVs