Controls Automation and Task Allocation program

The Flight Dynamics Directorate at Wright Laboratory awarded Boeing Defense and Space Group a Research and Development contract in September 1993 to develop an advanced flight management design to assist piloted and unmanned lethal aircraft in cooperative operational air-to-air and air-to-surface strike missions. Boeing has awarded a subcontract to GDE systems of San Diego to support this program. The objective of the Controls Automation and Task Allocation (CATA) program described is to develop an integrated, automated multi-ship flight management system. CATA will control flight paths and the allocation of assets (weapons and sensors, while maximizing survivability against threats, limiting fratricide (deconfliction), optimizing fuel reserves, and providing finite time control among a package of potentially dissimilar aircraft. The CATA design will accomplish these objectives through sharing of package resources, dispersed task allocation, and advanced flight management algorithms while limiting the impact on pilot workload