A Standards-Based Integration Platform for Reconfigurable Unmanned Aircraft Systems

This paper addresses the system design and integration challenges involved in meeting the requirements for coordinated deployment of multiple re-configurable Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). It will present and discuss an open standards based software architectural approach that demonstrably addresses – and simplifies these new and evolving issues. UAS developers are continuously challenged to adapt their UAS designs beyond originally conceived mission capabilities. Re-configurable payloads may provide some flexibility for deployment of UAS but do not fundamentally extend the UAS for comprehensive and dynamic multi-mission support. When we consider emerging requirements to support multiUAS operational coordination and to control swarms of unmanned aircraft, an intricate combination of system integration and dynamic re-configuration challenges emerges for next generation UAS developers. Addressing these issues requires a system-of-systems approach to UAS development and an open development platform for systemto-system communication, particularly as multi-UAS integration becomes a common mission requirement. This paper discusses a UAS systems architecture and platform that addresses these requirements using open standards and COTS technology. The approach demonstrably addresses and simplifies the evolving issues that re-configurability, multi-UAS coordination, safety and security requirements pose for next generation system designs. Meeting the new challenges and simultaneously maintaining system wide integrity for real-time capabilities, high availability, security and safety is an evolving process. Some UAS developers have already adopted open standards based technology and are well positioned to respond to these next generation system requirements. We will include several examples of UAS successfully deploying this architectural approach to illustrate its advantages in actual applications.