Congestion Analysis for the DARPA OFFSET CCAST Swarm

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) OFFensive Swam-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program’s goal of launching 250 unmanned aerial and ground vehicles from a limited-sized launch zone was a daunting challenge. The swarm’s aerial vehicles were primarily multi-rotor platforms, which can efficiently be launched en mass. Each field exercise (FX) expected the deployment of an even larger swarm. While the launch zone’s spatial area increased with each FX, the relative space for each vehicle was not necessarily increased considering the increasing size of the swarm and the vehicles’ associated GPS error. However, safe mission deployment and execution were expected. At the same time, achieving the mission goals required maximizing the efficiency of the swarm’s performance, by reducing congestion that blocked vehicles from completing tactic assignments. Congestion analysis conducted before the final FX focused on adjusting various constraints to optimize the swarm’s deployment without reducing safety. During the FX, data was collected that permitted analyzing the number and durations of individual vehicle blockages’ impact on the resulting congestion. After the FX, additional analyses used the mission plan to validate the use of simulation for analyzing congestion.