Objectives

• Design a small, intelligent and inexpensive mobile communications robot.
• Include tracks and flippers to traverse a range of terrain and overcome obstacles.
• Enable the rapid, on-demand establishment of a reliable communications network in areas with no existing fixed infrastructure.
• Operate in urban environments where other small robots often get trapped by relatively minor barriers.
• Perform surveillance, reconnaissance and other investigative tasks.
• Minimize weight, materials and manufacturing costs.

Objectives

• Gain a tactical advantage using UAVs and UUVs in collaboration.
• Detect, identify, track and locate threats in hostile environments.
• Develop the supporting collaborative architectures and supervisory control interfaces to support a combined UAV-UGV team that shares relative target information to track and pursue an operator-designated target of interest.
• Use collaborative software to enable the Raven UAV and iRobot® PackBot® UGV to autonomously execute mission goals while reducing operator workload, allowing the effective management of critical mission events and the high-level retasking of the individual unmanned vehicles.
• Extend the development of technologies supporting UAV-UGV collaboration to other unmanned systems, enabling the PackBot to be a coordinated and integrated participant in other UAV-UGV teaming missions.
• Evaluate existing multi-agent and coordination systems to facilitate appropriate coordination and synchronization between manned and unmanned assets during mission execution.
• Identify critical functions and metrics for the successful accomplishment of a collaborative unmanned system target engagement.
• Execute missions with high levels of precision, multi-point reconnaissance and rapid tempo.
• Protect troops from mortal danger.