Network enabled sensing for unmanned urban combats

Summary form only given. The routing and munitions management of multiple formations of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) through network enabled sensing will be discussed. The ability of the UCAVs to group into large formations and to divide into smaller formations on their way to high-value, tactical targets will be cast in the optimization. To solve such problem a sensory information management (SIM) network will handle data from a set of mobile sensors. SIM will determine whether sensor redundancy should and can be used, before it estimates an information state vector on the locations of the adversarial ground units and decoys. The networked UCAVs will calculate the worst-case minimization policy for an effective routing and munitions management relying on the SIM-net supplied information state vector. As in any time-critical control problem, closing the loop requires that sensor management, estimation, and high-level decision be accomplished within hard real-time constraints. Heuristic algorithms aiming at achieving real-time performance will be discussed. The effectiveness of UCAV routing and munitions management will be illustrated by means of examples featuring trajectory planning of multiple formations evolving in a dynamic urban theatre.