The Evolving Paradigm for Aerospace Sensor Networks
Timothy Howard · Infotech@Aerospace 2011 · 2011
Recent work has shown an increased use in the application of mobile unmanned aerospace sensor networks for complex sensing applications. Future UAS sensor networks will employ complex and dynamic network topologies and the use of heterogeneous platforms with sensors of different configurations and capabilities. Onboard or “in-situ” assessment of payload sensor data at the vehicle level will likely be critical in many future applications. We review some current and recent uses of UAS sensor networks in various application domains, and examine the potential for improved performance with some simple sensor data assessment models. We describe a simple wide-area survey problem as a paradigm for many future heterogeneous sensor network missions; this problem is similar to several currently being investigated for different sensing applications. We describe a simple modeling tool that can be used to simulate the effects of vehicle behavior on mission performance, and present results from a simple example which explores the effects of data assessment. We discuss applications to future UAS networks and extensions to additional real-world effects.