Mitigating Unmanned System Operations Challenges Through Shared, Collaborative Control

Unmanned vehicle (UxV) operations for Mine Countermeasures (MCM) offer the benefit of removing operators from minefields but pose unique operational challenges. On the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), MCM UxV operations are performed by a team of up to seven operators and consist of multiple UxV systems, including vehicles (e.g., the Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), and the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV)), planning systems (e.g., MEDAL and UVMS), and post-mission analysis tools (e.g., NSAM). Each system has a dedicated user interface, which results in operator tasking that is stovepiped by vehicle system.