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Summit and Workshop Description
The first Autonomous Weapons Summit and third GNC Challenges for Miniature Autonomous Systems Workshop will bring together users
and developers of the next generation of autonomous weapons systems to discuss Unified Combatant Command requirements, review
acquisition strategies across the services, and inform the weapons community at large on science and technology (S&T) activities with
the potential to deliver major advantages over the next 15 years through the use of autonomous systems.
Autonomous weapons are defined as ground, air, or sea-launched kinetic munitions that utilize on-board sensors, algorithms, and
control methods to improve estimates on the target state, to understand the implications of the engagement situation/environment, or
to develop engagement geometries that are otherwise unavailable to a conventional weapon. A weapon with autonomous attributes
does not imply a lack of warfighter influence; but rather that autonomy is always constrained and directed by human operators. And by
increasing autonomy it is assumed the weapon will become more effective at defeating difficult targets and enabling new capabilities
such as:
- Affordable Precision Effects
- Timely Precision Stand-Off
- Responsive and Dynamic Targeting
- Difficult Target Defeat (physical characteristics, target activities, and target locations)
- Challenging Environments (littorals, urban, adverse weather, night, denial, deception, active defenses)
- Networked Operations
- Miniature Autonomous Systems
The first day, the summit will feature FOUO presentations from representatives of Unified Combatant Commands, Office of the Secretary
of Defense (OSD), and service weapons acquisition leaders. On the second day, government laboratory representatives will provide FOUO
presentations and participate in FOUO workshops. On the final day, industry and academia will be invited to discuss relevant research
programs, including work from government grants and through Independent Research and Development (IR&D).
SESSION TOPICS
Online Abstract Submission Form
FOUO, U.S. Only Sessions - Monday and Tuesday, October 25-26, 2010
For U.S. Government, Military & Support Contractors (Visit Request and Need to Know Statement Required)
GNC Challenges for Miniature Autonomous Systems (multiple sessions)
This session focuses on GNC challenges for Miniature
Autonomous Systems (MASs). This session will describe
innovative ways of attacking the unique challenges of
designing MASs capable of agile locomotion or flight in
urban, forested, and indoor environments. This would
include sensor designs for miniature systems (i.e., cameras,
laser-based systems, magnetometers, MEMS-based inertial
sensors, millimeter-wave radar, RF-based sensors, and
combined sensors, GPS), methods that are enablers to make
smaller, more maneuverable UAVs and ground robots, novel
integration approaches for MASs, and navigation and control
strategies that would address the unique requirements of
miniature systems (i.e., dense power systems, wind gusts,
CG changes, concealment). Of particular interest are active
programs that provide advancements in the state-of-theart
in designing MASs that would be useful to the DoD for
accessing difficult targets, and for acquiring, tracking and
engaging non-traditional targets.
Chair: Dr. Brett Piekarski, Army Research Laboratory
Combatant Command Perspective
To develop a good science and technology investment strategy
it is imperative that the service acquisition and science and
technology leaders understand warfighters’ requirements in
the Unified Combatant Commands and the opportunities and
constraints that operations 10 to 15 years from now will impose
on weapons. Abstracts for this session should provide a unique
opportunity for all services to gain a single, cohesive picture of
how to shape their science and technology investments to better
match the warfighters’ need. Representatives of USCENTCOM,
USPACOM, USSOCOM, and USJFCOM are encouraged to present
their perspectives.
Chair: Dr. John Wilcox, Air Force Research Laboratory, Munitions Directorate
Processing and Algorithms
As autonomous weapons gain access to an increasing array of
information from sensors, seekers, networks and operators there
will be an increasing need for algorithms that extend weapon
autonomy to limits that are adaptable as imposed by weapon
operators. Abstracts that discuss algorithms that perform
autonomous target recognition (ATR), target classification and
tracking, operator assisted classification and tracking for visible
optical and infrared, RF and millimeter wave, and multi-spectral
and hyper-spectral sensors are encouraged. Algorithms that
defeat countermeasures and operate in high clutter/noise due
to weapon employment in challenging environments are of
particular interest; as well as methods for extending networks
of sensors or off-board sensing to enhance a weapon’s ability to
detect, classify and track targets.
Chair: Jay Hodge, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division
Navigation
Autonomous weapons will require precise navigation and timing.
The focus of this session is navigation technologies that may be
applied to DoD weapon system platforms. Specific interests
include development of state-of-the-art navigation and control
devices that can fill existing technology gaps and methods of
rapid azimuth determination or other means of precise weapon
pointing or target location. This session will also include inertial
sensors, inertial measurement units, inertial navigators, advanced
navigation systems that integrate inertial instruments with GPS,
velocity references, magnetic sensors, visual sensors or other
sensor types and systems that can provide precision navigation
capability in the event of GPS jamming or interference, systems
that can navigate without GPS and alignment/initialization of
navigation systems (transfer alignment, gyrocompass).
Chair: Dr. Vicki LeFevre, Aviation and Missile Research
Development & Engineering Center
Networking
Warfighter influence and oversight of autonomous precision
weapons will extend to midcourse and terminal phases of weapon
employment. Weapons in-flight will increasingly be part of a
network where information and command and control greatly
enhance mission effectiveness. Adding data links to weapons may
do more to increase autonomy than any other single technology.
This is due to the fact that operators will be able to push larger
quantities of more sophisticated targeting information to the
weapon that allows the weapon(s) to tailor their own engagement
geometries and timing to increase warhead effectiveness, decrease
collateral effects, and reduce susceptibility to countermeasures.
Networking weapons provides operators the “right level” of
oversight for weapons as dictated by the mission and rules of
engagement. This session will examine science and technology
efforts in data link and radio hardware and waveforms, network
messaging for weapons, cooperative weapon networking, and
issues of reliability and security specific to weapons.
Chair: Peter Lesniak, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division
Seeker Sensors
Seeker sensors have the potential to provide a great deal of
autonomy for weapons. Seekers can boost range, non line-ofsight
operations (including adverse weather and night-time) and
provide more engagement opportunities for dynamic targeting.
Seekers are crucial elements of weapons that require high levels
of precision. This session will feature presentations from each
service on passive and active seeker programs in visible optical
and infrared, RF and millimeter wave, multi-spectral and hyperspectral
seeker concepts, science, component development, and
seeker prototyping. Implications for autonomy and robustness to
countermeasures for these technologies will be discussed.
Chair: Dr. Bill Humbert, Air Force Research Laboratory
Munitions Directorate
DoD & Service Perspective
Abstracts from service weapons acquisition leaders already
developing roadmaps and strategies that feature autonomous
weapons capabilities for meeting UCC needs at encouraged.
Defense service laboratories are often not aware of the science and
technology involved in these plans, especially in other services.
Speakers should have an understanding of acquisition plans
that allow laboratory scientist and engineers an opportunity to
influence solutions.
Chair: Mary Miller, Office Secretary of Defense, ATL
Dynamics and Controls
Autonomous weapons will gain performance advantages on
conventional precision weapons by exploiting sensors and
networks to increase lethality, decrease collateral effects,
and provide synchronized effects robust to countermeasures.
Consequently weapon kinematics that exploit high levels of
maneuver are subject to large accelerations and give enhanced
stand-off are highly desirable. At the same time, reuse and
modular design that ensures cost effective production and
platform compatibility are of concern. This session will present
efforts under way to develop weapon and missile airframes and
control systems for autonomous weapons. Airframe dynamics,
actuation, stow or carriage, autopilots, and guidance laws will
be discussed. Also to be presented are results on cooperative and
networked control of weapons.
Chair: Dr. Robert Murphey, Air Force Research Laboratory,
Munitions Directorate
Simulation and Test Technology
Characterization of endgame guidance performance and
subsequently weapon effectiveness will require lab and ground
test capabilities that accurately characterize weapon response,
environmental effects, communications, and target/background
signatures. Developing accurate and representative models of
the weapon and environment and then effectively linking those
models to systems of systems of sensors, platforms and networks
will be a major challenge. New sensor modalities in multi and
hyper-spectral domains will require commensurate investments
in developing testing methods to cost effectively validate those
technologies. This session will present efforts in all aspects of
autonomous weapon GNC simulation and testing, including
model development, distributed experimentation, dynamic
simulation and hardware in-the-loop, seeker sensor scene
generation and projection, GPS simulation and countermeasure
simulation.
Chair: Greg Tackett, AMRDEC, System Simulation & Development
Directorate
Public Access Session Topics - Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Industry and academia are invited to present relevant IR&D and basic science and technology relevant to autonomous weapons and systems concepts, demonstrations, and guidance, navigation, and control.
Alternatives to GPS
If GPS becomes completely denied, weapons must be capable
of providing GPS-like precision by using some alternative. This
session will explore navigation techniques, instruments, and
algorithms that show promise for highly accurate performance
even without the use of GPS signals. Emerging technologies in
the precision navigation field that fill current capability gaps in
DoD systems are of particular interest.
Chair: TJ Klausutis, Air Force Research Laboratory, Munitions
Directorate
Avionics and Control
Increased use of sensing and networking will provide the
potential for greater autonomy, longer stand-off, and better
resistance to countermeasures. However, the increased flow
of data will also necessitate a greater level of processing, more
sophisticated computation, and more adaptive and robust
control. Even so, all this must be accomplished within smaller
size and weight constraints and be even more affordable than
current weapon avionics systems. This session will present the
latest technological trends in high density, miniature processing,
avionics computing, reconfigurable computing, adaptive control,
and robust control.
Precision Navigation in Challenging Environments
The focus of this session is precision navigation technologies
that may be applied to platforms in challenging environments.
Specific interests include development of state-of-the-art
navigation and control devices that can operate in challenging
environments like high spin rates, high accelerations (including
gun launch), high frequency vibration, or a difficult acoustic
environment. A challenging environment will also include an
urban or indoor environment. This session will include systems
that can counter GPS jamming. Emerging technologies in the
precision navigation field that fill current capability gaps in DoD
systems are of particular interest.
Chair: Tony Kourepenis, C. S. Draper Laboratory
Operator Interfaces
A critical aspect to the successful use of autonomous systems is
how warfighters will interact with them. Changes in the rules of
engagement, the target, situational constraints, the number of
platforms and targets, and the pace of events will drastically alter
what is considered “optimal” for the system-operator interaction.
This session will focus on the many aspects of display technology,
mixed initiative control, human supervised systems, and time
critical systems that are required to make autonomous systems
a success.
Chair: Dr. Pavlo Krokmahl, University of Iowa
GNC Test Technology
The focus of this session is GNC test technologies that may be
applied to DoD weapon system platforms in the laboratory,
hardware-in-the-loop facilities, or in the field. Specific
interests include design of hardware and software for
laboratory and real-world testing of GNC concepts. Methods
to quantify error contributions of the test equipment,
estimate the limits of test characterization accuracy, and
improve test confidence bounds are also of interest. Novel and
cost-effective approaches to test GNC concepts under multiple
environments simultaneously are of interest (i.e., vibration
over temperature).
Chair: Shawn Goodrich, Air Force Research Laboratory, Munitions
Directorate
Networking
Networks and data links will have a great deal of influence on
the level of autonomy afforded to weapons and other platforms.
There are three critical functional aspects to networking
autonomous systems; (1) giving the system the ability to collect
sensor and intelligence as needed and as appropriate from other
sensor platforms within the network, (2) pushing sensor data to
other platforms, and (3) participating in a command and control
structure that includes other machines (i.e., unmanned strike
platforms and other weapons) and human operators. This session
will focus on networking architectures, message protocols, and
data link radio hardware and waveform design that provide
high throughput, responsive and reactive channel management,
strong interoperability, high levels of information assurance, and
low probability of interception/detection.
Chair: Dr. Will Curtis, Air Force Research Laboratory
Seeker Concepts and Technologies
This session will concentrate on seeker component
technologies and integration concepts or programs that
have broad applicability to autonomous weapons. Imaging
sensing technologies are fast becoming more capable and
less expensive, providing a renewed opportunity to develop
cost effective yet highly effective seekers for weapons. Larger
focal plane arrays, multi-band arrays, and smaller pixels in
passive detectors will provide new covert seeker concepts
for autonomous weapons. Millimeter wave radar is now
more affordable than ever and will provide the basis for very
effective imaging seekers with small (<15cm) apertures.
Ladar technologies are also becoming much more prevalent
in DoD and industrial settings with rapid innovations in lasers,
pointing, receivers, and detectors. Multi-spectral seekers
offer a great deal of advantage in that they can combine two
or more low precision (but less expensive) imaging systems
within a single seeker and offer very high precision and less
vulnerability to countermeasures. Autonomous weapons will
need seekers that provide strong detection, classification and
tracking on their own. However, they will also be expected
to participate in networks such that imaging products can be
used on other sensor platforms and by human operators intent
on making high confidence identification or gaining increased
situational awareness.
Chair: Steve Strange, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division
Small Weapons and Systems Concepts
The focus of this session is on small weapons and unmanned
systems concepts driven mostly by the high interest in placing
weapons on small unmanned platforms. Specific interests
include state-of-the-art miniature autonomous systems that
use GPS or complementary techniques to develop and operate
weapon systems with an autonomous guidance element.
This session will include control and stability of miniature
weapons, and swarming scenarios. This session will focus on
the research challenges of small weapons concepts including:
lightweight materials and efficient methods of locomotion,
reliable low power operation, integration, and processing. Test
and evaluation of small weapons concepts is also of particular
interest.
Chair: Steve Lowe, AMRDEC
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Abstract Submission: Abstracts Due: August 13, 2010
All abstracts submitted should be written for public release and submitted via the ION's website no later than August 13, 2010.
Abstracts should describe objectives, results, conclusions and the significance of your work.
If you wish you may also submit an FOUO version of your abstract for consideration by your session chair WITH the public release version. FOUO
abstracts need to be clearly identified as FOUO both in the subject line on the submission page and on the abstract itself. FOUO abstracts must also be
accompanied by a public release version of the abstract for public access on the ION website.
To submit your abstract(s) go to www.ion.org, click on Meetings then Abstract Submission for the appropriate event. Abstract(s) may also be e-mailed
to abstracts@ion.org as a Microsoft Word or text file. Be sure to include your presentation title, the most appropriate session for your presentation,
a list of all authors and affiliations, and the primary author’s complete contact information including e-mail and cell phone number. FOUO abstracts
must be identified as such.
Abstracts received electronically will be acknowledged electronically. Abstract title and corresponding primary author will also be posted weekly on
the ION website. If your name does not appear after two weeks please contact the ION National Office by e-mail (meetings@ion.org). Authors will be
notified of acceptance in late September and sent an electronic author’s kit with presentation guidelines.
Sessions are presentation only. Non-FOUO presentations will be made available to workshop attendees through the ION’s web site. An electronic
version of the final workshop presentation with signed release form must be received by the ION National Office by October 29, 2010.
All presenters and session chairs are required to pay summit registrations fees.
LOCATION & HOTEL RESERVATIONS
All summit sessions will be held at the Emerald Coast Conference Center, 1250 Miracle Strip Parkway, SE, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 32548.
Hotel Reservations
A block of government rated rooms have been provided at the Sheraton Four Points (located on the beach directly across the street from the conference center). Rate includes internet and a full hot breakfast buffet.
To ensure you get a room at the government rate please make your reservation by October 3:
Online Hotel Reservations
REGISTRATION INFORMATION: REGISTER ONLINE!
Online registration will begin in September 2010
FOUO SESSION REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance Requirements:
Must meet all of the following:
1) U.S. Citizen
2) Visit Request/Authorization Request and Need-to-Know Statement
3) Photo ID
4) Workshop Participation Badge and payment of registration fees
Security Clearance:
The FOUO sessions will be limited to U.S. citizens, DoD personnel, and support contractors whose attendance is related to their position or program.
All visit requests must be received by October 15, 2010, and be approved by the AFRL/RW Security Office. For your convenience, a FOUO Visit Request
Form is available. All non-government personnel must also complete Form DD 2345.
FOUO Visit Request Form (all FOUO attendees)
Form DD 2345 (non-government FOUO attendees)
Fax All Visit Request and Need-to-Know Statements to:
1Lt Caroline A. New, USAF
101 W Eglin Blvd Rm 105
Eglin AFB, FL 32542
Phone: 850-883-2734
Fax: 850-882-8689
E-mail: caroline.new@eglin.af.mil
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