Affiliations: The Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 30, State College, PA 16804, USA. Tel.: +1 814 865 0962; Fax: +1 814 863 7841; E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] | Intelligent Systems Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230, USA. Fax: +1 301 990 9688; E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract: This paper describes an autonomous Intelligent Controller (IC) architecture directly applicable to the design of unmanned autonomous vehicles and develops metrics associated with their collaborative abilities. The vehicles may operate independently or cooperate to carry out complex missions involving disparate sensors or payload packages. The IC technology has been demonstrated in prototype designs of actual, autonomous, unmanned, intelligently controlled vehicles. An approach to measure the performance achieved when collaboration is allowed between vehicles is also presented, including the gain obtained over the base capability of the vehicles operating independently. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the use of the metrics and performance attainable. Although this paper briefly presents one particular intelligent control architecture, the goal of the paper is to provide metrics that are applicable to a broader class of control architectures as developed by the research community.
