Mission planning system with asynchronous request capability

• US 7,236,861 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2005
• Issued: 06/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Szczerba, Robert J., Paradis, Rosemary D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli; Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US11/058,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184291A1
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/24
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 13/00 Means of attack or defence not otherwise provided for details of radar or sonar systems G01S7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00

Abstract

A system processes asynchronous requests from members of a team of autonomous unmanned vehicles. The system includes a user request interface for receiving a request from a single team member and a request manager for performing a task in response to the request and returning a result of the task to the user request interface. The user request interface transfers the result to the single team member without communicating to any other members of the team.

Claims

1. A system for processing asynchronous requests from members of a team of autonomous unmanned vehicles, said system comprising:

a user request interface for receiving a request from a single team member; and

a request manager for performing a task in response to the request and returning a result of the task to said user request interface,

said user request interface transferring the result to the single team member without communicating to any other members of the team.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1 further including a mission planning manager for determining an appropriate level of a team hierarchy to input the request.

3. The system as set forth in claim 1 further including a planning information manager for receiving requests to update objectives of a mission plan for the team of autonomous unmanned vehicles.

4. The system as set forth in claim 1 further including a mission task resource allocator for determining resources utilized by the team for executing a mission plan.

5. The system as set forth in claim 1 further including a contingency manager for monitoring execution of a mission plan by the team.

6. The system as set forth in claim 5 further including a mission planner for executing changes to the mission plan.

7. The system as set forth in claim 1 further including a priority manager for determining criticality of the request.

8. The system as set forth in claim 7 wherein said priority manager determines a source of the request.

9. The system as set forth in claim 8 wherein said priority manager returns a result to said request manager.

10. The system as set forth in claim 1 further including an operator request interface for receiving a request to modify a mission plan from an operator of said system.

11. A system for processing asynchronous requests from members of a team of autonomous unmanned vehicles, said system comprising:

a user request interface for receiving a request from a single team member;

a request manager for performing a task in response to the request and returning a result of the task to said user request interface; and

a vehicle request interface for providing instructions to members of the team in response to the request,

said user request interface transferring the result to the single team member without communicating to any other members of the team.

12. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including a mission planning manager for transmitting an update to a mission task resource allocator.

13. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including a mission planning manager for transmitting an update to a choke point monitor.

14. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including a mission planning manager for transmitting an update to a terrain route planner.

15. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including a mission planning manager for transmitting an update to a trajectory planner.

16. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including an embedded simulator for modeling a candidate mission plan.

17. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including a repository for storing realistic models.

18. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including an operator interface manager f or monitoring execution of a mission plan.

19. The system as set forth in claim 11 further including a platform execution manager for evaluating a mission plan.

20. The system as set forth in claim 19 wherein said platform execution manager has a task sequencer and a vehicle platform translator.