Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA)
Abstract
The Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA) program is developing and demonstrating new autonomous agents and techniques that support a Blue Force Commander in managing the complexity and ambiguity of urban spaces by rapidly identifying and discriminating among potential threats during missions ranging from minutes to hours. The program uses perception-enabled autonomous vehicles to manage complexity and interactions with populations to drive down the ambiguity between peaceful civilians and threats. The program will create a system of autonomous ground and air platforms operating in conjunction with U.S. ground forces that monitor an area overtly to detect hostile forces and establish Positive Identification (PID) before any U.S. troops come into contact. Military units follow strict rules of engagement (ROEs) that prescribe an escalation of force appropriate with the level of hostilities and confidence that an individual is engaged in nefarious behavior. This program will establish a Legal, Moral, Ethical (LME) working group comprising multiple individuals (technologists, military, university professors, ethicists, legal experts) to develop an understanding of how escalation and/or de-escalation of force can and should be appropriately applied in the context of supervised autonomous systems. URSA is exploring scenarios and probing behaviors to enable identifying innocent civilians and individuals who pose a threat to U.S. Forces, allies, or non-combat civilians. This mission requires the integration and maturation of novel sensors, and unmanned ground and air vehicles which leverage current techniques in perspective and reactive autonomy to navigate cluttered urban environments. URSA is developing new search and engagement behaviors to disambiguate human actions and serve as evidence that a potential target is a threat. It is implementing new dimensions of evidence such as the human reactions to these engagements to improve confidence in its decisions and building a novel framework for escalating and de-escalating nonlethal force.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2024
- Source ID
- 128c937f925c3cdf55cb0d5b9a5c3df3
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- Root: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY