NewVectors Projects
J-9 Swarming
On October 20, 2005, Van Parunak, John Sauter, and Robert Matthews from NewVectors’ Agent-based Complex Systems Group along with Johns Hopkins University, and the Army Research Laboratory demonstrated for the first time the use of NewVectors’ swarming algorithms to control a heterogeneous population of air and ground unmanned vehicles in an urban combat scenario. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) research community, NAVAIR, OSD and Joint Forces Command J9, attended the demonstration held at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.
The demonstration used four robots, a mock urban area, and two Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). NewVectors’ novel pheromone algorithms controlled and coordinated the flight of the two UAVs as they performed continuous surveillance over an urban area and provided protection for a convoy as it moved though the area. Meanwhile the ground robots patrolled around a mock power plant complex and were cued to identify potential threats found by the UAVs.
Current UAV control requires that the operator specify the task and route for each vehicle. With NewVectors’ algorithms the operator simply gives a high level command to the whole swarm, such as “survey this area and track any identified targets”. The robots autonomously configure themselves to accomplish the specified objective.
During the demonstration, one of the ground robots failed. The other ground robots were able to dynamically readjust their patrol patterns to accommodate the missing unit without any intervention by the operator. This unplanned event helped to demonstrate the robustness of these algorithms to unexpected events.
The use of unmanned vehicles is receiving increased attention in the military. Troops in Iraq are having great success in using unmanned assets to patrol large areas and survey for explosive devices. NewVectors is using the success of this demonstration to pursue new opportunities that will transition this promising technology into the battlefield.