Naval Automation and Information Management Technology
Jerry E. Pratt, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, James F. Allen, Lucian Galescu, Niranjan Suri · 2006
In future military scenarios, large numbers of unmanned ground, air, underwater, and surface vehicles will work together, coordinated by an ever smaller number of human operators. In order to be operationally efficient, effective and useful, these robots must have competent physical and sensing abilities, must be able to perform complex tasks semi-autonomously, must be able to coordinate with each other, and must ultimately be observable and controllable in a useful and intuitive fashion by human operators. In addition, future soldiers will be outfitted with exoskeletons to enhance their capabilities, whether carrying heavy loads, swimming, carrying heavy loads, or scaling walls. Under the Naval Automation and Information Management Technology Program (NAlMT), The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) of the University of West Florida has conducted advanced research on unmanned systems and exoskeletons in the areas of(l) underwater exoskeletons for enhancing speed aed endurance of Navy divers, (2) human-agent teamwork and agile computing and (3) mixed initiative human control. Progress made in FYO4 in each of these three areas is described below.