Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF161-065

Description

ABSTRACT: To address the Air Force need for new information synthesis algorithms to increase the situational awareness of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) during sense-and-avoid (SAA) activities in the terminal airspace (TA), Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new All-source Terminal Information Synthesis and Situational Awareness (ATISSA) algorithm, based on all-source information synthesis and self-managed uncertainty reduction and conflict resolution. Specifically, the innovation in real-time information synthesis framework and uncertainty management will enable the ATISSA to process information and messages from off-board sensors and extract information related to SAA operations. As a result, ATISSA offers enhanced situational awareness of surrounding aircraft and environment conditions, which directly address the Air Force requirements. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of ATISSA by developing and integrating ATISSA key algorithms into a Phase I software prototype that provides increased situational awareness and SAA in the TA through information synthesis. In Phase II, the ATISSA information synthesis algorithms will be further developed and expanded to include other types of off-board data. Algorithms for managing data uncertainties and resolving conflicting information will also be developed. These algorithms will be integrated into a Phase II prototype for demonstration in hardware-in-the-loop simulation.; BENEFIT: The proposed ATISSA technology will result in an enhanced situational awareness software application for commercial and government applications. The ATISSA offers enhanced situational awareness for UASs, which is highly desired in a wide range of commercial applications, including security monitoring, robotic control, manufacturing control, and search-and-rescue operations.