RoboLeader for reconnaissance by a team of robotic vehicles

Abstract

Autonomous teams of robotic vehicles are gaining significant importance in military applications in the realm of reconnaissance and the execution of vital tasks. As teams of robotic vehicles grow in size and mission complexity, ever increasing burden is placed on the human operators charged with overseeing such operations. It is imperative that, in order to increase future mission complexity and success, a certain amount of work load be removed from the operator and a greater level of autonomy be given to the unmanned systems. A modular architecture has been developed which allows for components to be added on to the RoboLeader utility providing expanded capability of the design with little modification to existing architecture. Currently, the RoboLeader utility assesses intelligence on ground conditions and provides the human operator with alternate path plans for a series of situations which require difference path solutions.