Research Summaries

Back Optimizing Distributed, Collaborative MCM Missions with Unmanned Maritime Vehicles

Fiscal Year 2020
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department NPS Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Kragelund, Sean P.
Kaminer, Isaac I.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary Mine countermeasures (MCM) remains an extremely challenging and complex Navy mission. Mine hunting operations must employ a variety of sensor platforms not only to detect underwater objects, but also to distinguish actual mines from non-mines. The search theory literature suggests methods for planning optimal searches with immediate contact investigation to deal with false targets (e.g., non-mines). However, detection and identification tasks usually require different sensors, possibly carried by different vehicles. As a result, MCM missions are often planned and conducted sequentially, with lengthy post-mission analysis (PMA) between sorties. This sequential search paradigm is inefficient and causes delays in the MCM timeline. Recent advances in computational optimal control offer new possibilities for real-time collaboration between dissimilar autonomous vehicles. This study will investigate whether existing, centralized methods for optimal mission planning can be leveraged for fully distributed collaborative search missions. The primary research objective is to assess whether distributed, event-driven planning by individual vehicles can approach the performance of centralized methods for MCM mission planning. Different probabilistic models, search performance criteria, and Bayesian update methods will be evaluated in the context of distributed, collaborative MCM missions. Methods for optimizing on-demand trajectory generation for event-driven or vehicle-initiated tasks will also be explored. Finally, this study will focus on how, what, and when information should be shared amongst dissimilar vehicles conducting a collaborative mission to reduce uncertainty and improve search performance.
Keywords Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) MCM Mine Warfare Optimal Control Search and Detection Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV)
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal