Collaborative signal and information processing for target detection with heterogeneous sensor networks

In this paper, an approach for target detection and acquisition with heterogeneous sensor networks through strategic resource allocation and coordination is presented. Based on sensor management and collaborative signal and information processing, low-capacity low-cost sensors are strategically deployed to guide and cue scarce high performance sensors in the network to improve the data quality, with which the mission is eventually completed more efficiently with lower cost. We focus on the problem of designing such a network system in which issues of resource selection and allocation, system behaviour and capacity, target behaviour and patterns, the environment, and multiple constraints such as the cost must be addressed simultaneously. Simulation results offer significant insight into sensor selection and network operation, and demonstrate the great benefits introduced by guided search in an application of hunting down and capturing hostile vehicles on the battlefield

Design Proposal of Self-Powered WSN Node for Battle Field Surveillance

AbstractA growing demand for deployment of autonomous battlefield sensors and sensor networks is leading to a subsequent increase in the demand for localized, independent energy harvesting capabilities for each node. In this paper, several methods of energy harvesting are summarized. By utilizing energy form the surroundings, small amounts of power can be harvested from wind, solar radiation and stress sources. Energy harvested is converted to battery potential via a converter. Operation flowchart of the system is presented. Meanwhile, an algorithm for the sensor network to adaptively learn its energy environment has been studied. Schemes summarized in this paper can be of guidance for design and utilize energy harvest systems on the battlefield network sensor nodes

Technological Perspectives of Countering UAV Swarms

Conventional AD systems have been found less effective for countering UAVs and loitering munitions. Thishas necessitated the development of counter-UAV systems with different functionalities. A cluster of armed UAVsas swarm formations has further rendered the conventional AD systems far from effective, emphasizing the need to consider countering swarms as the most crucial element in new-generation aerial threat mitigation strategies. In this paper, the capabilities of UAV swarms and vital military assets exposed to such attacks are identified. To protect the vital assets from aerial swarm threats, ideal system characteristics of a counter-UAV (C-UAV) swarm system to overcome the challenges are discussed. Currently available acquisition & engagement technology is analyzed and the application of these systems to counter swarm applications is brought out. New requirements are discussed and a conceptual design of a layered system is derived which can handle a large spectrum of aerial threats including a swarm of UAVs. This system is expected to have a higher rate of engagement and can be designed with low-cost network-integrated systems

Space as a New Sphere of Future Information Warfare

Air power has seen constant development from the Wright Flyer’s first flight at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903 via the advent of the jet age with the service entry of the Messerschmitt Me 262 in 1942, to today’s multirole fighters (F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) and stealth aircraft (B-2 Spirit multi-role bomber). As a result of this evolution of one hundred years air power has emerged as a central component in power projection. As General William Mitchell said: ”Neither armies nor navies can exist unless the air is controlled over them.” (Mitchell 1925, xv)We have witnessed a corresponding development in space, albeit with a lag of nearly sixty years. The first satellite, the Sputnik, went in orbit on October 4, 1957 and the first manned spaceflight was accomplished on April 12, 1961 (by Yuri Gagarin). July 20, 1969 saw the first landing of man on the moon by Neil Armstrong; the first Space Shuttle launch was on April 12, 1981; and the International Space Station (ISS) has remained manned since November 2, 2000. Since 1961, more than 400 men and women have visited the realm of space. General Tommy Franks said:”The pieces of this operation (Iraqi Freedom) which have been successful would not have been so without space-based assets … it’s just simply a fact.”A major ingredient of success in modern warfare is the capability to collect and analyze information and then use it for the execution of command and control. Intelligence, surveillance, command and control, positioning, and targeting systems along with increasingly technical fire systems will have a key role in this area. Deliberate information warfare operations are conducted during times of crisis and war. They are planned based on of information obtained from intelligence and surveillance assets. The aim of the attacker in information operations is to produce a desired effect on targets by means of psychological warfare such as dissemination of information and other psychological operations; by using network attacks and deception along with other forms of information systems warfare; and by employing electronic warfare assets for jamming, and weapons to suppress the enemy’s intelligence, surveillance, and command and control systems.Space, the electromagnetic spectrum, virtual networks, the psychological domain, and media will occupy central roles in any future information warfare, and all these can be used in both defensive and offensive modes. The foregoing sums up as a concept of global information warfare. We already have space-based C4ISR, targeting, and positioning systems. The successful execution of operations in future wars depends on the gaining and maintaining of space supremacy. Space is in the process of becoming a new dimension in information warfare

Rationale Document: Entity Information And Entity Interaction In A Distributed Interactive Simulation

Report on the development of a standard communications protocol, networking different operator trainers and developmental simulators together and developing this standard at the protocol data unit level

Rationale Document: Entity Information And Entity Interaction In A Distributed Interactive Simulation

Report on efforts to define and develop a standard communication protocol at the protocol data unit level

Asynchronous displays for multi-UV search tasks

Synchronous video has long been the preferred mode for controlling remote robots with other modes such as asynchronous control only used when unavoidable as in the case of interplanetary robotics. We identify two basic problems for controlling multiple robots using synchronous displays: operator overload and information fusion. Synchronous displays from multiple robots can easily overwhelm an operator who must search video for targets. If targets are plentiful, the operator will likely miss targets that enter and leave unattended views while dealing with others that were noticed. The related fusion problem arises because robots' multiple fields of view may overlap forcing the operator to reconcile different views from different perspectives and form an awareness of the environment by "piecing them together". We have conducted a series of experiments investigating the suitability of asynchronous displays for multi-UV search. Our first experiments involved static panoramas in which operators selected locations at which robots halted and panned their camera to capture a record of what could be seen from that location. A subsequent experiment investigated the hypothesis that the relative performance of the panoramic display would improve as the number of robots was increased causing greater overload and fusion problems. In a subsequent Image Queue system we used automated path planning and also automated the selection of imagery for presentation by choosing a greedy selection of non-overlapping views. A fourth set of experiments used the SUAVE display, an asynchronous variant of the picture-in-picture technique for video from multiple UAVs. The panoramic displays which addressed only the overload problem led to performance similar to synchronous video while the Image Queue and SUAVE displays which addressed fusion as well led to improved performance on a number of measures. In this paper we will review our experiences in designing and testing asynchronous displays and discuss challenges to their use including tracking dynamic targets. © 2012 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc