Management of Distributed Autonomous Systems 

The goal of this project is to develop autonomous functions for the joint problem of sensor management and aircraft control to relieve a human system operator. This will be achieved by exploring high level control of the platforms and their resources, e.g. sensors.

The cognitive focus of pilots has shifted from controlling the aircraft to managing the sensor systems with the introduction of autonomous flight systems. One can compare with modern drones, which are very easy to control, but still the pan, tilt and zoom of the onboard camera is a challenging task.

Further, planning the flight to maximize the information from e.g. a camera poses its own challenge. It requires understanding of how to manage available sensors to achieve the goal at hand; proactively take limitations in the environment into consideration; react to changes; learn from experience; and collaborate as necessary.

Sensor fusionFour WASP students demonstrating autonomous drone flight in the Visionen test arena as part of a WASP project course. Photo credit David Brohede

Researchers

Publications

WASP Sensor fusion