Collaborative Command and Control of Unmanned Surface Operations

Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories has been performing collaborative unmanned surface and unmanned air vehicle (USV and UAV, respectively) experiments in cooperation with the U.S. Navy. This multi-domain collaborative research focused on extending unmanned vehicles into useful partners in maritime security utilizing intelligent onboard behaviors, collaborative control, and efficient human-system interfacing in situations involving narrow and medium communications mediums. This experimentation-based research provided the ability to command multiple unmanned assets from various user locations and transition control between distant users. The focus of this part of the research is the collaborative command and control of USVs, UAVs, and unattended sensors by minimal staff without requiring the use of a joystick or other device for low-level control of vehicles and sensors. The basic operational concept explored in the experiment is to perform oversight of UxV operation by providing mission commands such as designating patrol areas or requesting imagery or video of objects of interest. The goal is to improve capabilities for controlling unmanned systems to avoid the workload problems associated with teleoperation and low level control of unmanned assets. This paper discusses the lessons learned on command and control of collaborative unmanned surface operations. Motivation and Objectives The research focuses on exploring collaborative command and control. The motivation is that the more efficient user group to allow multiple user teams to use USV and UAV assets for information gathering. The objective of the work is to explore the ability of graceful handoff of mission parameters, objectives, and commands between that of multiple part time users. This moves the command mode to the level of commands such as a “take a picture of X” and letting the system decide which asset should be tasked based on other requests and resource capability and availability. The individual users become collaborative mission managers without having a dedicated USV or UAV operator. The collaboration is mediated by a high-level command and control system that provides ability to specify high-level tasks and mission parameters such as areas of interest or “no-drive” zones, as well as providing comprehensive situation awareness of the battlespace and of the platforms and mission status. This system synchronizes its view and command input across multiple physical user interfaces with ability for seamless handoff of command between users. This approach is different than that of a normal UxV operation within the Navy, in which control of a single vehicle is tied to a specific console without good mechanisms for controllers of different platforms to collaborate. The experimentation brought in Navy users to assist the development of new concepts of operations and to evaluate the effectiveness of the approaches and ultimately influence future unmanned systems operations.