Ground tactical mission support by multi-agent control of strongUAVstrong.pdfVIP

Ground tactical mission support by multi-agent control of UAV operations ˇ ˇ Jirí Vokrínek, Peter Novák and Antonín Komenda Agent Technology Center Dept. of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague Czech Republic Abstract Autonomous control of group of unmanned aerial vehicles based on task allocation mechanisms shows great potential for ground tactical mission sup- port. We introduce experimental simulation system combining flexible mission control of ground assets in urban environment and autonomous aerial support utilizing multi-agent problem solving techniques. Two case-studies are presented for evaluation – cooperative area surveillance and dynamic target tracking with undervalued number of assets. We show the strength and benefits of multi-agent task allocation and delegation mechanisms in such dynamic scenarios mainly in case of limited number of assets. 1 Introduction In the recent decade the state of technology in robotics achieved a degree allowing routine deployment of unmanned assets in real-world scenarios. Nowadays, many tac- tical missions, be it e.g., disaster relief search rescue operations, military missions in mountainous, urban, air or underwater environments rely on deployment of tele- operated robots, such as various unmanned aerial vehicles including conventional fixed- wing aircrafts, vertical-take-off-and-landing helicopters, robotic cars or underwater glid- ers. With a growing need to deploy multiple assets in the field in order to efficiently fulfil a mission, the tele-operation control mode, however, results in a need for employment of multip