Validation Testbed for Trust-Aware Autonomy in Contested Environments
Abstract
The objective of this DURIP proposal is to develop an instrument for experimentation, validation, and verification of trust-aware multi-agent autonomous systems operating in contested environments; in such scenarios, supported by the proposed testbed, a number of heterogeneous aerial and ground vehicles need to tightly coordinate in order to perform the desired missions. The ability to reliably interact with and have clear understanding of the environment (i.e., sense and control-actuate), even in adversarial environments, is critical for mission success. Thus, it is critical to be able to explore the impact of realistic security and unreliability models that may occur in real-world deployment. The proposed instrument will enable researchers to develop understanding for the necessary trade-offs between security, safety, performance and other requirements in multinational coalition missions where vehicles have been contributed by multiple partners, and where the vehicles are required to cooperate while taking into account different levels of trusts between the agents. A distinguishing feature of this instrument is the inclusion of heterogeneous vehicles that support different sensing modalities as well as the on-board computational capabilities. In addition, the proposed testbed will also include edge- and cloud-based servers that will allow for real-time (with < 10ms latency) processing, which will in turn facilitate control-situational awareness strategies for autonomous mobile agents where part of the computation can be offloaded to the cloud. Development of this instrument will augment an on-going multi-university AFOSR Center of Excellence focused on assured autonomy in contested environments, as well as a number of other current and pending DoD projects. This system will also provide a long-term instrument for future advanced concepts that involve trust-aware collaboration of autonomous agents.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 05, 2025
- Source ID
- FA95502410054
Entities
People
- Miroslav Pajic
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Duke University
- United States Air Force