Metron will build a combined planner and executive module called Miser to assist with energy-optimal pre-sortie planning but will also run onboard the UUV to adjust the sortie as it is executed. Current UUVs have entirely pre-planned sorties giving a detailed mission script. Producing this plan is time consuming and error prone, but worse, such plans are brittle. Unknowns such as water current variation, conditions at a survey site, or platform degradation cause the executed sortie to deviate from the provided plan. In the most severe cases, this will cause the UUV to be lost. In contrast, Misers onboard decision-making allows plans to be flexible. Key to Misers success is its onboard estimation of the current UUV capabilities. This allows the UUV to respond to drag increases, battery failures, and degraded sensors. These models feed route and survey planner that can be run onboard or pre-mission to assess the energy cost of potential future actions. Miser then uses a probabilistic model to assess the risk versus reward of undertaking a particular mission. Operators set the acceptable trade-off between risk and reward, allowing for the UUV to undertake dangerous actions during times of military necessity, but operate more conservatively with there are no exigencies.
Benefit: Miser addresses a critical need for both the DoD and civilian UUV markets: managing energy resources to get the most performance out of the vehicle on a sortie. Miser will make mission execution safer and more effective by avoiding both over use and under use of the battery. Initially, Miser will target DoD survey-type missions, such as those performed by Razorback, Kingfish, and Knifefish UUVs and envisioned for Snakehead. However, the same technologies and missions apply to civilian vehicles directly, opening the door to vehicles from Dive Technologies, L3Harris, and General Dynamics.
Keywords: Unmanned Vehicles, Unmanned Vehicles, Energy Optimization, Automated Planning, Plan Execution, Plant Estimation
