Autonomous Teammates for Squad Tactics

The United States Department of Defense seeks to integrate small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into infantry squads and develop tactics, techniques, and procedures using unmanned systems. Through an iterative design process consisting of live-fly tactical exercises, this research investigates the teaming of humans with unmanned aerial systems. Exercises involve force on force engagements to encourage the development of tactics and procedures for the future operating environment. Three successful mission tactics for leveraging UAS in missions are defined. In addition to autonomy, teams leverage convolutional and artificial deep neural networks running real time on aerial video feeds to identify and classify combatants and friendly forces.