Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Automatic route guidance vehicle
Patent
1997-11-10
2000-09-19
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Automatic route guidance vehicle
701 3, 701 36, 701200, 342 13, 342 16, G06F 700
Patent
active
06122572&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is in the field of command and control of Unmanned Vehicles--(UV), in air, space, ground, underground, sea, and underwater applications.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The rational for the ever increasing need for autonomous capability of UVs, stems from the need to provide efficient means to operate vehicles and to accomplish missions in remote locations, for long, or even very long duration, and very often, in areas without safe accessibility to a human operator. A human operator was found to be ineffective, and even unreliable or unresponsive in such missions. Furthermore, to operate a vehicle from a remote location, in a semi-autonomous man-in-the-loop mode, i.e. a mode of operation involving man intervention, a bi-directional data link between the remote, man controlled command and control center, and the on-site unmanned vehicle, must be established. Moreover, achieving high fidelity video transmission over the data link for long distance, where sometimes, the data link has to be a secure link, involves high cost and cumbersome logistic effort, which, in some cases, may render the use of such system commercially and/or operationally prohibitive.
High autonomy operation is also a key rational, when the mission has to be executed by a fleet of UVs, which are operating in coordination and cooperation. Manual command and control of a fleet of UVs by a human operator is extremely complex, if not impossible.
It is accordingly the object of the present invention to substantially reduce or overcome the drawbacks associated with hitherto known semi-autonomous systems.
More specifically the present invention seeks to enhance the autonomous capability of UV, by incorporating thereto an onboard programmable decision unit, operating in an essential autonomous fashion, thereby enabling the UV to achieve better performance in accomplishing its mission under dynamic, changing and unknown environment and at the same time increasing the likelihood of mission success, while simplifying the pertinent operational procedures. "Autonomous" in the context of the invention means execution of a mission under self control without any intervention of an external supervisor, operator or incooperative agent, while operating in a dynamic, unpredictable friendly, neutral or hostile environment. For further details refer to reference 12 below.
Insofar as military applications are concerned, it is another object of the invention to incorporate a decision unit, in the manner specified, thereby not only increasing the likelihood of mission success along with simplifying the pertinent operational procedures, but also reducing the required supporting logistic, whilst, at the same time, extending the range of operation parameters and operational envelope over enemy territory.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
For a better understanding there follows a glossary of terms and definitions used herein (in alphabetical order), some being conventional and others having been coined. arcs interlinking them, as referred to for example in the book "Graph Algorithms", by S. Even. In the context of the invention, the graph is not limited to any particular architecture (e.g. binary tree) and accordingly this term encompass all known per se architectures, depending upon the particular application. Typical yet not exclusive examples of graph architectures are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,056 Guelman et al. of operation): involves man intervention and is partly based on a programmable autonomous decision unit,
LIST OF REFERENCES
There follows a list of publications to which reference is made throughout the description. Autonomous Mobile Robots, Proceedings SPIE Vol. 1831 Mobile Robots VII, Boston, November 1992, pp. 119-130. Reflexive Behaviors and Reasoning-Driven Behaviors in Intelligent Autonomous Systems., Ch. 43 in Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, IAS-3, Pittsburgh Feb. 15-18, 1993, pp. 428-438. Intelligent Autonomous Systems", in Proceedings of IEEE 1993 International Symposi
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Arie Yavnai, "Context Recognition and Situation Assessment in Autonomous Mobile Robots", vol. 1831pp. 119-130 (1992). month, date unknown.
F.C.A. Groen et al., "Intellignet Autonomous Systems", pp. 428-438. no date.
A. Yavnai, "Context Recognition and Situation Assessment in Intelligent Autonomous Systems", pp. 394-399, (1993). month/date unknown.
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Avron Barr et al. "The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence", vol. 1 and II. date unknown.
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Arie Yavnai, "Context Recognition and Situation Assessment in Autonomous Mobile Robots", pp. 119-130, vol. 1831 Mobile Robots VII, (1992). month/date unknown.
Arie Yavnai, "Arbitration Network, A New Approach for Combining Reflexive Behaviors and Reasoning-Drive Behaviors in Intelligent Autonomous", pp. 428-438. no date.
Arie Yavnai, "Distributed Decentralized Architecture for Autonomous Cooperative Operation of Multiple Agent System", pp. 95-101.
Arie Yavnai, "Criteria of System Autonomability", pp. 448-458. no date.
Beaulieu Yonel
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
State of Israel
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