SBIR-STTR Award

Geneva Aerospace offers provably safe and certifiable control technologies for automatic and seamless mode transitions involving manual and automatic controls for a spectrum of piloted, optionally piloted, remotely operated, and autonomous air, land, and sea vehicles. The emphasis of the proposed effort is in the adaptation of our Variable Autonomy Control System to the optionally piloted air vehicle application to address the many technical and human factors issues surrounding cockpit automation. We will demonstrate that our approach is robust, reliable, and predictable. The proposed effort will further demonstrate that our common variable autonomy control architecture supports an entire gamut of moving platforms from piloted to autonomous with minimal changes required to support each specific platform. We will perform a dutiful survey of the existing human factors and taxonomy data associated with vehicle automation. Leveraging from our existing research in vehicle variable autonomy control, we will conduct a subsequent human effectiveness study to identify the appropriate human-system interface that maximizes operator situation awareness. Further, we will investigate the latest advancements in autonomous fault detection algorithms and select and incorporate those algorithms that show the most promise/feasibility and conduct trade studies on the effectiveness of these algorithms operating within our core architecture. The proposed research offers large commercialization potential, both within the DoD as well as the commercial UAV and civil aviation markets. The variable autonomy, fault tolerant control solutions have direct application to many DoD programs and initiatives such as the Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) program, the Navy's Autonomous Operations initiative, and the Army's Future Combat Systems program. Additionally, the resulting control technologies will impact future commercial UAV applications within the US Forestry Service, the Coast Guard, the gas and oil industry, the power industry, and many others. Beyond the UAV industry, the technology resulting from the proposed effort affords the opportunity to make a profound impact in civil aviation safety by offering a safe, reliable, and certifiable control architecture enabling cockpit automation.

Keywords:
Variable Autonomy Control, Gradient Control, Multi-Modal Control, Automatic Fault Detection, Fault Tolerant Systems, Situation Awareness, Civil

Our first product from this effort will be P-VACS, the Playbook enhanced Variable Autonomy Con-trol System, a control architecture which allows a single human with minimal training to control multiple unmanned vehicles even under conditions of limited and interrupted attentional capacity in urban opera-tions. The potential customers for this technology and the size of their markets are growing. According to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) UAV roadmap, the US DoD will invest over $4 billion in UAVs over the next decade. This will include a substantial investment in autonomous control systems technologies that significantly enhance the operational utility of UAVs by allowing a few, or even a single, operator(s) with minimal training to effectively manage and control groups of vehicles. The integration of VACS with Playbook will open up many new opportunities within the UAV industry. The first anticipated customer within the DoD market will be the Organic Air Vehicle (OAV) component of the Future Combat System?s program headed by DARPA and the U.S. Army. Our research will also benefit key DoD initiatives, including the DARPA/Army?s Future Combat Systems program proper and the Navy?s Autonomous Operations, both of which will require more reliable autonomous and semi-autonomous systems technologies. We believe the proposed effort will provide the necessary technology that truly enables multiple vehicle command and control by a single operator in the Air Force?s Multi-Mission Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A), the Navy?s Multi Mission Aircraft (MMA), the Air Forces Next Generation Gunship program. Farther afield, there are a number of other consumers of variable-initiative human involvement with automation. Chief among these currently are those branches of NASA involved in deep space manned and unmanned exploration. Critical to realizing the revolutionary potential of UAVs and UCAVs in the battlefield is efficient autonomous guidance and control (G&C). It must be possible for a small number of non-rated operators to simultaneously control multiple, diverse unmanned vehicles while concurrently engaged in other du-ties, and exposed to threats and interruptions. The proposed effort will develop a control system archi-tecture, called P-VACS (Playbook-enhanced Variable Autonomy Control System), that meets these strin-gent demands through the synergistic integration of two state-of-the-art control approaches. Smart Infor-mation Flow Technologies? Playbook supervisory control system provides an integrated ?front end? to a control architecture that unifies variable initiative user input and intelligent planning capabilities to allow very high level tasking of UAV assets and smart, automated detection and replanning when initial plans go awry. Geneva Aerospace, Inc.?s Variable Autonomy Control System provides a modular, integrated control architecture enabling management and control of multiple UAVs by a single operator via novel gradient control techniques. Unifying these two approaches will provide a uniquely powerful, autono-mous multi-UAV guidance and control system that enables cooperative control of groups of UAVs at flexible levels of autonomy by a single operator?even within the challenging domain of OAV control in urban terrain.

Keywords:
AUTONOMOUS CONTROL, VARIABLE AUTONOMY CONTROL, VARIABLE INITIATIVE CONTROL, UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAV), ORGANIC AIR VEHICLES (OAV), MULTI-VEHICLE