AFRL combined Network Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) program activities with Small Unmanned Air Vehicle Persistent Visualization for Operational Response (SUPERVISOR) experiments, demonstrating the capability to provide combat commanders with timely situational awareness across a multitude of scenarios, including improvised explosive device detection, mass casualties from a terrorist bus explosion, convoy reconnaissance, and perimeter defense.
Accomplishment
AFRL demonstrated the embedded wireless network algorithms created as part of NEST, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-funded program, to interested Army, Air Force, and National Guard representatives attending the Team Patriot exercise at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. AFRL integrated its NEST and SUPERVISOR experiments to coincide with exercises performed by Team Patriot participants.In each exercise, ground sensors running NEST applications detected vehicles entering and exiting the area of interest and summoned the SUPERVISOR aircraft to the area. SUPERVISOR used its camera to gather imagery of the vehicle as it passed ground sensors and provided timely information to Team Patriot participants.
During several exercises, AFRL technicians deployed multiple, distinct ground sensor fields up to a mile away from the data collecting station. NEST then converted the raw sensor data to Transducer Markup Language (TML), a language for passing sensor information between a system and its associated processing station over long-range directional antennas to the data collecting station. NEST correlated the multiple TML data streams from the separate sensor fields to predict the movement of the intruding vehicle. The large distances between sensor fields allowed SUPERVISOR operators to set individual sensor fields as waypoints for the aircraft, which simplified unmanned air vehicle retasking.
Background
NEST is a DARPA-funded, AFRL-managed initiative that uses extraordinary advances in microsensors, microelectronics, advanced sensor fusion algorithms, self-localization technologies, and information technologies. The NEST program’s long-term goal is to create a suite of hardware-independent middleware that will foster dependable, real-time, distributed, embedded applications comprising 100100,000 nodes. NEST will make this possible by focusing on coordination services comprising fault-tolerant, self-stabilizing protocols for time, data exchange, synchronization, and routing in large, distributed systems.Additional Information
To receive more information about this or other activities in the Air Force Research Laboratory, contact TECH CONNECT, AFRL/XPTC, (800) 203-6451 and you will be directed to the appropriate laboratory expert. (IF-S-05-10)DISTRIBUTION A - PUBLIC RELEASE
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