Grant: Alliance Grants

The Department of National Defence - Department of Research and Development Canada (DND-DRDC) have requested a proposal on "intelligent, agile and low cost "interceptor" drones to seek and engage hostile, non-cooperative and non-compliant drones. The research program proposes the development of a holistic C-UAS program based on an effective interceptor drone equipped with AI-enhanced airborne decision-making and trajectory planning, and neutralization agents. The research team will design, develop, validate, and evaluate C-UAS solutions using multidisciplinary design optimization tools and processes and flight testing of interceptor drones with a range of >10 km that are able to defeat autonomous Class 1 RPAS (<150 kg). The interceptor drone will be equipped with sensors to augment situation awareness and AI-enhanced Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) to engage and neutralize the target non-cooperative drone(s). The implementation of multi-agent flight formation will also be explored to increase the probability of a successful interception. The artificial intelligence methods and algorithms developed for intelligent unmanned aerial systems in this project will be designed to be readily deployable in real-world environments where safety and robustness are imperative. With the integration of uncertainty management methods into machine learning this project will introduce practical solutions for some of the most critical issues of this powerful modeling paradigm. These efforts will contribute to the operational readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces including combat and surveillance operations, but many other civil and commercial applications would benefit from this effort such as environmental monitoring, security, emergency response, and surveillance. Further, individual technology components of the proposed program such as 3D computer vision will create opportunities for innovation in academic and industrial research and development. The outcome of the project aims to assist DRDC in making informed decisions on the implementation of C-UAS strategies for national defence.