Defence

Defence Science and Technology Organisation

DSTO future technologies give the ADF an edge on the battlefield

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is developing new technologies that will assist the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to maintain its capability edge in the information age. The technologies will ensure the flow of critical military information, improve command and control and extend the range and effectiveness of unmanned vehicles. Darryl Johnston explains.

A UAV and UGV working together during a recent trial.
Photo provided by DSTO

One such technology is Military Bandwidth Broker (M-BB), which ensures important military information is given preferential treatment during times of high network load. DSTO scientist, Dr Marek Kwiatkowski, said the Defence communications environment using the Internet will soon carry bulk multimedia traffic such as data, voice and video.

“This traffic will be of different military importance and could result in congestion, dropouts and/or increased delays in the delivery of mission-critical information,” he said.

“M-BB is a new technology that ensures mission-critical flows are given preferential treatment during times of congestion. This preferential treatment is called Military-oriented Quality of Service.

“M-BB controls the flow of mission-critical information and its prioritisation according to the commander’s operational policy. While important information is delivered quickly, delivery of less important information is deferred.”

DSTO has built an experimental software platform that was used to verify the M-BB concept. The verification has been done in-house and also during a multinational trial with the United States Air Force Research Laboratory and Communications Research Centre from Canada demonstrating coalition network management.

The M-BB research results have now been licensed to private sector company, Tenix Defence, in order to further develop the product. Under a Capability Technology Demonstrator Program, DSTO and Tenix collaborated to build and demonstrate a near-production M-BB.

The capabilities provided by M-BB will have relevance to Defence projects SEA 1442 (Maritime Communications and Information Management Architecture Modernisation), JP 2072 (Battlespace Communications Systems – Land) and JP 2008 (Military Satellite Capability).

Agreement Technologies

DSTO is also developing a technology aimed at improving command and control for ADF members in the field. DSTO’s Dr Jason Scholz said Agreement Technologies are electronic ‘protocols’ to improve the accuracy and reach of mission commands communicated by networked forces to ensure they are fully understood, accepted and actioned.

He said the technology operates in a similar way to the Internet-based market-place eBay, where buying and selling takes place through a formal process of offers and acceptance.

“Agreement Technologies could be used to support multiple government and non-government agencies to reach agreement for unified actions when working in coalition and in major relief operations.

“A prototype of the new technology is set for trial with the Australian Army and Singapore Armed Forces over the next two years,” Dr Scholz said.

3-D maps for autonomous systems

In other developments DSTO has demonstrated that three dimensional laser-generated maps downloaded from air to ground vastly improve the autonomous operations of unmanned ground vehicles.

This follows a successful DSTO-led trial that integrated an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). The Australian-first trial was conducted with the Universities of Sydney and Adelaide and the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Head of DSTO’s Automation of the Battlespace Initiative, Dr Anthony Finn, said using the laser-generated maps from the unmanned aerial vehicle allowed the unmanned ground vehicle to autonomously plan and then navigate its route through a bush setting.

“The maps allowed the UGV to avoid obstacles such as trees, bushes and steep or uneven sections of terrain,” Dr Finn said.

“A vertical take off and landing UAV, essentially a small helicopter carrying a miniaturised payload combining electro-optic and laser radar sensors, flew over the terrain to produce a series of aerial three dimensional (3D) strip images. These images were then fused into a single 3D map of the area,” Dr Finn added.

“This 3D map was next downloaded into the UGV, which then autonomously planned its route through the bush at Sydney University’s Marulan test site in New South Wales.

“The UGV also had its own sensors on board such as laser radar, Global Positioning System, Inertial Navigation System and electro-optic cameras, which also allowed the vehicle to autonomously navigate through the bush and to complete the 3D view from a ground perspective.

“What the team found was that the aerial mapping data from the UAV significantly improved the robustness and efficiency of the UGV route planning and navigation. It was especially useful in exposing sloping terrain and low lying obstacles that could not be detected by the UGV’s own onboard sensors.

“This work is being carried out under DSTO’s Automation of the Battlespace Initiative, which seeks to understand how unmanned vehicles and other robots might undertake tasks for the military, allowing service personnel to avoid a range of dangerous missions,” he said.

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