Cooperative Unmanned Aerial Surveillance Control System Architecture

Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is a high-demand Department of Defense mission performed by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) at the tactical and theater levels. Coordinating UAS aircraft through cooperative control offers the advantages of persistence, distributed and adaptable se...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Diamond, Theodore T, Rutherford, Adam L, Taylor, Jonathan B
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
CONTROL SYSTEMS
DRONES
FLIGHT TESTING
INTELLIGENCE
Military Operations, Strategy and Tactics
MISSIONS
Pilotless Aircraft
RECONNAISSANCE
SURVEILLANCE
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
THEATER LEVEL OPERATIONS
THESES
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Summary:Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is a high-demand Department of Defense mission performed by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) at the tactical and theater levels. Coordinating UAS aircraft through cooperative control offers the advantages of persistence, distributed and adaptable sensor coverage, and reduced revisit time on points of interest. The purpose of this thesis is to apply systems engineering principals to the problem of developing a flexible, common control system for cooperative UAS surveillance at the tactical level. The AFIT team developed a concept of operations (CONOPS) encompassing various users and surveillance tasks. The team then used the scenarios in the CONOPS to build a conceptual architecture. Simultaneously, the team constructed and flew a developmental test system that closely resembled the architecture. The team then used this architecture and the prototype system to identify significant technical risks and future research areas to be explored prior to the development of an operational system. The original document contains color images.