perfidy

Some clever domeheads at DARPA have learned to get uavs of different feathers to flock together. DARPA's HURT program (damn, do I love their names) has developed a system that allows soldiers to control multiple, dissimilar uavs from a single handheld computer. In a test, four uavs of three separate types - both fixed and rotary winged - all fed imagery of an abandoned barracks area to the Humvee mounted HURT system.

...the soldier was able to view broad-area surveillance images from the low-flying UAVs on his handheld and request imagery using simple cursor commands.

The HURT system autonomously determined which UAV was most capable of providing the requested imagery based on each vehicle’s position and current tasking. Commands were then sent to the individual vehicles’ ground control stations. Imagery from the UAVs was fused by the HURT system then sent to the handheld computer. The soldier was able to request imagery of a building, surveillance of a moving truck, or a replay from several minutes earlier.

“HURT communicates only with the ground control system for each UAV. We do not change the UAV,” says Charlie Guthrie, director advanced capability development. “The operator launches the vehicle and sends it to a marshalling point where it is available for use. HURT looks at the systems assigned to it and programs them to give the best data it can, setting up reconnaissance patterns and scan areas.” The soldier can then make simple, high-level requests like “follow that car”, he says.

Future tests will attempt to integrate a larger and more diverse array of uavs, as well as ground sensors and other systems like red force- and blue force tracking. Part of the problem of surveillance and tactical intelligence on the modern battlefield is information overload. Rather than having many operators each trying to process imagery from one bird, here you have multiple birds providing one operator with just what he needs.

From here, I imagine the next step would be to get HURT to process multiple requests from its flock of airborne drones. Essentially, it would be a tactical network of sensors that works something like the internet does. Analysts would be able to - without having to bother with the details of individual drones - get what they need while the HURT system handles the the mechanics of maneuvering the drones around.

Sweet.