Deployment of multi-agent algorithms for tactical operations on UAV hardware
Martin Selecký, Michal Štolba, Tomáš Meiser, Michal Čáp, Antonín Komenda, Milan Rollo, Jiří Vokříne, Michal Pěchouček · Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agents Systems · 2013
Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly popular for tasks such as surveillance or target tracking in various types of tactical missions. Traditionally, each UAV in a mission is controlled by one or more operators. In our previous work we have developed a collection of distributed algorithms that allow one operator to control a whole team of small UAVs.Here, we report on our successful effort to deploy the developed multi-agent control algorithms to a team of hardware UAVs.To reduce costs and risk, we first developed the multi-agent control algorithms using simulated approximation of the target environment. Then, we gradually refined the model of the target environment by adding higher-fidelity models of the assets and hardware-in-the loop assets. In the final step, the algorithms were deployed and field tested in a full hardware setting and in a mixed-reality setting, where hardware UAVs are accompanied by a a number of simulated UAVs.