The U.S. Navy will conduct two technology demonstrations of swarming unmanned vehicles over the next nine weeks, the chief of naval research said. The demonstrations in July and September will feature unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), respectively.
The demonstration during the last week of July will feature the LOCUST (Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology) that was demonstrated in 2014, said Rear Adm. Mathias W. Winter, chief of naval research and director, Innovation Technology Requirements, and Test & Evaluation for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
The LOCUST includes a tube launcher that can launch multiple UAVs in rapid succession. An information-sharing data link between the UAVs enables autonomous collaboration among the UAVs. The swarm of UAVs can be used for offensive or defensive missions to overwhelm the capabilities of enemy platforms.
“Next week, down in the Gulf of Mexico, we will be launching 30 UAVs within two minutes and they will be forming up, flying, engaged,” Winter said. “That demonstration has been stair-stepped five, 10, 10, 10, 30 [UAVs]. We put that together not haphazardly.
“We’re able to bring in UAVs in flocks of 30, and then have four break off and go do something and come back,” he said.
Winter said the science behind swarming — “the intelligent algorithms and the ability to communicate, sense and avoid, re-group and separate”— is domain-agnostic.
“We take that learning and bring it into the surface domain. We’re going to be doing a surface swarming demonstration in September,” he said.
“We did one in the James River in 2014 and that was the original algorithm set that now has been matured into LOCUST,” he said. “We have a follow-on to that which is more operational aligned for a high-value unit with multiple swarming boats to set up a perimeter, break off and engage an adversary and come back, and all man-in-the-loop, and approved by the Coast Guard. That’s going to be an exciting demonstration towards the end of September.”
Winter said the Office of Naval Research is building up toward demonstration of domain-agnostic combinations in swarming vehicles.
“In the next demonstration, I want a UUV [unmanned underwater vehicle], USV and UAV swarming together,” he said. “We want to understand: is that technically feasible? The answer to that is yes.”
Photo: Lee Mastroanni (R) Program Officer ONR and Robert O Work Deputy Secretary of Defense at Technology Innovation Day at the Pentagon June 24, 2016 – US Navy – John F Williams
Source: Seapower