An assignment based distributed resource manager
Aubrey B. Poore, Scott Danford, M.J. Hilt · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2010
The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the coordination in real-time of the operation of multiple sensors in such a way that those best-equipped for certain missions should perform those missions for the entire network, while other sensors fill in the gaps with their capabilities. The networked system of sensors must search, detect, track, classify, and engage targets of high value in a timely fashion. The information transmitted should be that which contributes the most toward achieving the performance goals (e.g., track accuracy, track completeness, and a consistent operational picture or single integrated air picture (SIAP)) subject to the network bandwidth constraints and the capabilities of the sensors. We present an overview of an assignment based sensor resource manager, a distributed algorithm for coordinating the assignment problem, and simulation results that validate this approach. While the assignment formulation and algorithms could include both sensor resource and bandwidth constraints with versions for single and multiple time periods, i.e., myopic and non-myopic, the distributed prototype formulation and algorithms developed for these experiments were restricted to the tasking of certain sensors to make measurements and transmit them over the network based on the current air picture. The number of measurements put on the network was controlled by limiting the number of sensors that could transmit measurements on each target. The communication loading was then measured to demonstrate that indeed one can design a distributed sensor resource manager capable of achieving the objectives of significantly reducing the communication loading and maintaining SIAP.