Multi-Level Re-Planning For Reconnaissance Drones
Glenn David Blank · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1987
The Navy currently uses airborne drones for reconnaisance, controlling them by radio uplink or autopilot technology. Radio contact is not always possible, however, and autopilot control does not monitor non-navigational sensors, such as a CDC camera. We are developing a system that will monitor the autopilot as it follows a pre-planned mission, and re-plans in response to conditions detected by non-navigational sensors. At its heart is a novel approach to real time system control, called Register Vector Grammar. We demonstrate how this modified finite state automaton is able to model both hierarchical decomposition and heterarchical responsiveness--both needed to handle the range and interaction of behaviors susceptible to intelligent control--without calling for inordinate computational complexity.