Title
Net-Centric Communication and Control for a Heterogeneous Unmanned Aircraft System
Abstract
This paper presents a net-centric communication, command, and control architecture for a heterogeneous unmanned aircraft system comprised of small and miniature unmanned aircraft. An integrated system was developed using a bottom-up design approach to reflect and enhance the interplay between networked communication and autonomous aircraft coordination. The advantages of the approach are demonstrated through a description of the unmanned system that resulted from using this design process. First, the hardware system is described, including both small and miniature unmanned aircraft along with their respective avionics systems. Second, a network architecture is described that seamlessly combines the miniature aircraft's IEEE 802.15.4 components with IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) components on the small aircraft. Integration of intravehicle communication and service discovery is also described. Third, a hierarchical control architecture is presented that uses the network architecture to coordinate the small and miniature aircraft at several layers in the control hierarchy. Hardware in the loop demonstrations are performed to validate the capabilities of the heterogeneous unmanned aircraft system.
Year
DOI
Venue
2009
10.1007/s10846-009-9334-x
Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
Unmannned aircraft system,UAS,Communication and control,Cooperative control,Heterogeneous unmanned aircraft system
Architecture,Avionics,Net-centric,Network architecture,Control engineering,Hardware-in-the-loop simulation,Engineering,Design process,Service discovery,Hierarchy,Embedded system
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
56
1-2
0921-0296
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
8
1.51
5
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jack Elston1498.07
Eric W. Frew218226.73
Dale Lawrence3958.62
Peter Gray4947.55
Brian Argrow5347.96