2016 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)
Unmanned Aerial Vecicles (UAVs) in civil and military applications are becoming increasingly popu... more Unmanned Aerial Vecicles (UAVs) in civil and military applications are becoming increasingly popular. Various platform types have already shown their great potential in missions that require rapid surveillance capabilities or logistic support. Large scale incidents require the deployment of several platforms with various capabilities. In this case, coordinated use will lead to more efficient use of the given resources. Problems to resolve resemble known optimization problems from the field of vehicle routing or scheduling. The problem considered in this work includes a given team of homogenous UAVs and a set of target locations with certain requests that need to be served. It is modeled as a variant of the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) that is known to be NP hard, i.e. until now no algorithm is known that can solve the problem in polynomial run-time. In this paper, the problem is formulated using a path flow formulation and a column generation algorithm has been implemented and tested to solve simulated realtime instances of the problem in suitable time∗.
Abstract: A commonly believed axiom in signal detection theory is that "more information is ... more Abstract: A commonly believed axiom in signal detection theory is that "more information is good " [1]. That is, when attempting to determine the state of a partially observable system the addition of correct information monotonically improves the correctness of the state assessment. When diagnosing static systems the assertion that "the effect of information is to increase the likelihood of getting correct diagnosis, while reducing the likelihood of incorrect diagnosis" holds. However, when diagnosing dynamic systems, the improvement in diagnosis is offset by increases in uncertainty generated by the dynamic forces within the system being observed. A similar effect occurs when controlling dynamic, stochastic systems. The act of exercising control requires a finite amount of time, during which uncertainty enters into the system reducing the efficacy of the control policy. The impact of information processing delays increases in relevance as the complexity and pac...
The role of unmanned platforms is rapidly expanding across a wide range of defense and homeland s... more The role of unmanned platforms is rapidly expanding across a wide range of defense and homeland security missions. Currently operational unmanned vehicles are “tele-operated”, using a command and control link to a remotely located pilot. However, operational complexity, operational pace, and a need to function in communication denied environments necessitate a trend toward autonomous unmanned vehicles. Autonomous systems that make independent decisions in complex engagements, such as the Navy’s Autonomous Aerial Cargo Unmanned System, are currently under development and will require development and operational testing within the next 3-5 years. Testing of autonomous systems presents some unique and vexing challenges. For instance, the infinite number of variations of test conditions that can exist to stimulate autonomous behaviors and the complexity of the interactions that can occur among multiple autonomous systems combine to make comparative measurement of autonomous system perfo...
MILCOM 2016 - 2016 IEEE Military Communications Conference, 2016
this paper provides an overview of research to apply human-machine Situation Awareness (SA) princ... more this paper provides an overview of research to apply human-machine Situation Awareness (SA) principles to Electronic Warfare (EW). The research leverages the Endsley SA model combined with Cognitive Radio Ontology extensions to provide automatic inference capabilities for EW. The result is an interoperable language for autonomous cognitive EW systems to create and share knowledge about the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) and the platforms using it. In this paper, we explore several modeling and inference constructs using ontologies expressed in the Web Ontology Language (OWL). We show that these constructs are aligned with the elements of the Endsley model and when implemented in an autonomous system they can significantly enhance the SA of its users and lead to more informed courses of action.
... they represent simple, well-understood systems, may be devised analytically and validated thr... more ... they represent simple, well-understood systems, may be devised analytically and validated through empirical testing. ... The search strategy used to select future states for investigation is a factor that ... A good general description of leading search algorithms may be found in [ 11 ]. ...
... by describing several recent, current, and planned research projects in a variety of domains.... more ... by describing several recent, current, and planned research projects in a variety of domains. ... Many real-world systems may be described as connection systems, including household plumbing ... states within the system that are consistent with cur-rent and historical observations. ...
A has been engaged in a number of independent research and development PL has been engaged in a n... more A has been engaged in a number of independent research and development PL has been engaged in a number of independent research and development projects over the past 5 years intended to demonstrate the cooperative behaviors of swarms of small, autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Swarm members cooperate to accomplish complex mission goals with no human in the loop. These projects represent a variety of approaches to UAV swarming, including teaming, consensus variables, and stigmergic potential fields. A series of experiments was conducted from 2001 through 2005 to demonstrate these concepts, and research in this area is ongoing. As a result of these efforts, APL has developed autonomy frameworks, hardware architectures, and communications concepts that are applicable across a broad range of small, autonomous aerial vehicles.
We present a risk based multi-agent chilled water control system for naval ships which is able to... more We present a risk based multi-agent chilled water control system for naval ships which is able to reduce the vulnerability of the ship systems by automatically assessing threats and then reconfiguring the water distribution network prior to a damage event to minimize the impact. The multi-agent control system applies marketbased approach to manage chilled water resource both reactively and proactively during runtime with risk assessment of component failure. In our study, an extended Contract Net Protocol (CNP) is proposed and used for the agent bidding and negotiation to respond to failures, failure risks and mission goal changes. The protocol extension covers both de-commit strategy and an innovative cost model which is able to include the risk factor in the agent bids and allows the control system act proactively. The effectiveness of the risk based multi-agent control has been demonstrated on a ship chilled water system simulator which mimics a reduced scale of chilled water system tabletop testbed to respond to threats, e.g., fire threats.
2007 IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2007
Agent-based control with software agents encapsulating model-based inference engines is described... more Agent-based control with software agents encapsulating model-based inference engines is described. This system is then used as a baseline for an exploration of the utility of distributed, agent-based control. This exploration includes a discussion on the importance of information in control, including how agent scoping and agent topologies are driven by information theoretic models.
2016 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)
Unmanned Aerial Vecicles (UAVs) in civil and military applications are becoming increasingly popu... more Unmanned Aerial Vecicles (UAVs) in civil and military applications are becoming increasingly popular. Various platform types have already shown their great potential in missions that require rapid surveillance capabilities or logistic support. Large scale incidents require the deployment of several platforms with various capabilities. In this case, coordinated use will lead to more efficient use of the given resources. Problems to resolve resemble known optimization problems from the field of vehicle routing or scheduling. The problem considered in this work includes a given team of homogenous UAVs and a set of target locations with certain requests that need to be served. It is modeled as a variant of the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) that is known to be NP hard, i.e. until now no algorithm is known that can solve the problem in polynomial run-time. In this paper, the problem is formulated using a path flow formulation and a column generation algorithm has been implemented and tested to solve simulated realtime instances of the problem in suitable time∗.
Abstract: A commonly believed axiom in signal detection theory is that "more information is ... more Abstract: A commonly believed axiom in signal detection theory is that "more information is good " [1]. That is, when attempting to determine the state of a partially observable system the addition of correct information monotonically improves the correctness of the state assessment. When diagnosing static systems the assertion that "the effect of information is to increase the likelihood of getting correct diagnosis, while reducing the likelihood of incorrect diagnosis" holds. However, when diagnosing dynamic systems, the improvement in diagnosis is offset by increases in uncertainty generated by the dynamic forces within the system being observed. A similar effect occurs when controlling dynamic, stochastic systems. The act of exercising control requires a finite amount of time, during which uncertainty enters into the system reducing the efficacy of the control policy. The impact of information processing delays increases in relevance as the complexity and pac...
The role of unmanned platforms is rapidly expanding across a wide range of defense and homeland s... more The role of unmanned platforms is rapidly expanding across a wide range of defense and homeland security missions. Currently operational unmanned vehicles are “tele-operated”, using a command and control link to a remotely located pilot. However, operational complexity, operational pace, and a need to function in communication denied environments necessitate a trend toward autonomous unmanned vehicles. Autonomous systems that make independent decisions in complex engagements, such as the Navy’s Autonomous Aerial Cargo Unmanned System, are currently under development and will require development and operational testing within the next 3-5 years. Testing of autonomous systems presents some unique and vexing challenges. For instance, the infinite number of variations of test conditions that can exist to stimulate autonomous behaviors and the complexity of the interactions that can occur among multiple autonomous systems combine to make comparative measurement of autonomous system perfo...
MILCOM 2016 - 2016 IEEE Military Communications Conference, 2016
this paper provides an overview of research to apply human-machine Situation Awareness (SA) princ... more this paper provides an overview of research to apply human-machine Situation Awareness (SA) principles to Electronic Warfare (EW). The research leverages the Endsley SA model combined with Cognitive Radio Ontology extensions to provide automatic inference capabilities for EW. The result is an interoperable language for autonomous cognitive EW systems to create and share knowledge about the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) and the platforms using it. In this paper, we explore several modeling and inference constructs using ontologies expressed in the Web Ontology Language (OWL). We show that these constructs are aligned with the elements of the Endsley model and when implemented in an autonomous system they can significantly enhance the SA of its users and lead to more informed courses of action.
... they represent simple, well-understood systems, may be devised analytically and validated thr... more ... they represent simple, well-understood systems, may be devised analytically and validated through empirical testing. ... The search strategy used to select future states for investigation is a factor that ... A good general description of leading search algorithms may be found in [ 11 ]. ...
... by describing several recent, current, and planned research projects in a variety of domains.... more ... by describing several recent, current, and planned research projects in a variety of domains. ... Many real-world systems may be described as connection systems, including household plumbing ... states within the system that are consistent with cur-rent and historical observations. ...
A has been engaged in a number of independent research and development PL has been engaged in a n... more A has been engaged in a number of independent research and development PL has been engaged in a number of independent research and development projects over the past 5 years intended to demonstrate the cooperative behaviors of swarms of small, autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Swarm members cooperate to accomplish complex mission goals with no human in the loop. These projects represent a variety of approaches to UAV swarming, including teaming, consensus variables, and stigmergic potential fields. A series of experiments was conducted from 2001 through 2005 to demonstrate these concepts, and research in this area is ongoing. As a result of these efforts, APL has developed autonomy frameworks, hardware architectures, and communications concepts that are applicable across a broad range of small, autonomous aerial vehicles.
We present a risk based multi-agent chilled water control system for naval ships which is able to... more We present a risk based multi-agent chilled water control system for naval ships which is able to reduce the vulnerability of the ship systems by automatically assessing threats and then reconfiguring the water distribution network prior to a damage event to minimize the impact. The multi-agent control system applies marketbased approach to manage chilled water resource both reactively and proactively during runtime with risk assessment of component failure. In our study, an extended Contract Net Protocol (CNP) is proposed and used for the agent bidding and negotiation to respond to failures, failure risks and mission goal changes. The protocol extension covers both de-commit strategy and an innovative cost model which is able to include the risk factor in the agent bids and allows the control system act proactively. The effectiveness of the risk based multi-agent control has been demonstrated on a ship chilled water system simulator which mimics a reduced scale of chilled water system tabletop testbed to respond to threats, e.g., fire threats.
2007 IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2007
Agent-based control with software agents encapsulating model-based inference engines is described... more Agent-based control with software agents encapsulating model-based inference engines is described. This system is then used as a baseline for an exploration of the utility of distributed, agent-based control. This exploration includes a discussion on the importance of information in control, including how agent scoping and agent topologies are driven by information theoretic models.
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