Multi-Vehicle Flight Testbed for Extended Mission Analysis, Fault Isolation, and Recovery

This paper presents a unique indoor multi-vehicle testbed named RAVEN (Real-time Autonomous Vehicle indoor test ENvironment) that was constructed to enable investigations of long-duration missions in a controlled environment. RAVEN provides a platform for demonstrating algorithms that embed the fleet and vehicle health state into the mission and UAV planning by enabling researchers to examine questions such as the rate and impact of vehicle failures on mission success, and what are the best strategies for performing routine refueling and maintenance using real hardware. RAVEN is comprised of both aerial and ground vehicles, allowing researchers to conduct tests for a wide variety of mission scenarios. This paper discusses this testbed infrastructure and presents flight test results from some of our most recent singleand multivehicle experiments. In addition, this paper presents results for an autonomously-controlled multi-vehicle persistent surveillance mission scenario. 1.0 INTRODUCTION While many researchers have been discussing autonomous multi-agent operations [1],[2], more work is needed on how to perform multi-agent health management for autonomous task groups. In the past, the term “health management” was used to define systems which actively monitored and managed vehicle sub-systems (e.g., flight controls, fuel management, avionics) in the event of component failures [3]. Prognostic and health management techniques are being developed for new military aircraft systems to reduce future operating, maintenance, and repair costs [4]. In the context of multiple vehicle operations, we can extend this definition to autonomous multi-agent teams. In this case, teams involved in a mission serve as a “vehicle system.” Then, each multi-agent team involved in the mission is a sub-system to the larger mission team. In addition, each vehicle is a sub-system of each multi-agent team, and so on. As discussed in [5], several research groups have developed a variety of platforms to verify advanced theories and approaches for UAVs. Many of the multi-UAV platforms are built for outdoor use and examine questions related to autonomous exploration in unknown urban environments or probabilistic pursuit-evasion games [6], [7], autonomous coordination and control algorithms [8],[9], and other multi-vehicle experiments [10-12]. In RTO-MP-AVT-146 18 1 UNCLASSIFIED/UNLIMITED UNCLASSIFIED/UNLIMITED Valenti, M.; How, J.P.; Vian, J. (2007) Multi-Vehicle Flight Testbed for Extended Mission Analysis, Fault Isolation, and Recovery. In Platform Innovations and System Integration for Unmanned Air, Land and Sea Vehicles (AVT-SCI Joint Symposium) (pp. 18-1 – 18-16). Meeting Proceedings RTO-MP-AVT-146, Paper 18. Neuilly-sur-Seine, France: RTO. Available from: http://www.rto.nato.int/abstracts.asp. Report Documentation Page Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. 1. REPORT DATE 01 NOV 2007 2. REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Multi-Vehicle Flight Testbed for Extended Mission Analysis, Fault Isolation, and Recovery 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER