Towards Distributed Intelligence: A High Level Definition

Abstract : Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV's) Research and Development within the Autonomous Land Systems (ALS) project will assist the Canadian Forces in fulfilling their future mandate. The ALS project derives its focus from the Autonomous Intelligent Systems (AIS) activity outlined by the DRDC Technology Investment Strategy (TIS). There are five anticipated classes of Unmanned Vehicles (UV): (1) Fixed or rotor wing aircraft Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV); (2) Typically tracked, wheeled, legged Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV); (3) Stationary monitoring Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS); (4) Untethered, propellor or bouyancy driven, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV); and (5) Light propellor driven Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV). The future battlespace demands compatibility between all UV classes. All UVs must have an inherent ability to share information if they are to provide the desired force multiplication factor for the future asymmetric battlespace. To effectively distribute intelligence modules within and between UVs, layered modular hardware design and portable, maintainable coding practice require an architecture that, at once, intrinsically supports and encourages distributed computing, and frees investigators to focus on the development of intelligent single and multi-vehicle control systems. An architecture founded on these elements defines, at a high level, the links between various software components that create an operational vehicle.