Systems & Technology Research LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A15-010

Description

Systems & Technology Research (STR) proposes to develop Distributed Modular Algorithms and Architecture for Robust Coordination (D-MAARC) for manned-unmanned teams. D-MAARC will: 1) operate in a disrupted communications environment, 2) produce plans AND re-plans that are easy for operators to understand, 3) allow for plug-and-play with a variety of unmanned platforms. D-MAARC will achieve these goals by providing contingency policies that are human-understandable and represent approved and optimized responses to plan disruptions, including loss of communications. D-MAARC will employ an architecture based on open source standards as well as develop modular and model-based components that will allow the underlying algorithms to adjust to the parameterized inputs of a variety of platforms. In order to develop the technology, STR will develop models for policy and contingency representation, using a combination of decomposition and hierarchical representation to make information more accessible to the operator, as well as make the associated algorithms tractable. We will then develop algorithms for evaluating policies based on stochastic rollout to ensure robustness to disruptions. This Phase I work will lay the groundwork for live demonstrations in Phase II.