Reconnaissance, Surveillance, And Target Acquisition Research Articles

Quantum drones and the future of military warfare

The advent of drones has significantly impacted military warfare, providing improved reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA), cost savings, increased convenience, safety, and flexibility. A layered network control architecture, known as the internet of drones (IoD), coordinates drone access to controlled airspace and offers navigation services. Various systems, including wireless sensor networks (WSN) and drones directed to an expanded controlling zone, integrate with IoD to improve connection performance. This paper provides an overview of the IoD and the internet of quantum drones (IoQD), highlighting key issues and potential solutions in applications and deployment. The IoQD provides primary features such as secure message exchange, fast communication processes, the viability of creating and deploying private IoQD, and enabling a new field of application, quantum well (QW). In conclusion, the advent of drone technology has significantly improved various aspects of military operations, including reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition. The IoQD offers a promising solution for military networks, facilitating the safe and expedited transfer of data, ultimately benefiting the entire military network.

Real-Time Visual Tracking of Moving Targets Using a Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with a 3-Axis Stabilized Gimbal System

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have recently shown great performance collecting visual data through autonomous exploration and mapping, which are widely used in reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) applications. In this paper, we present an onboard vision-based system for low-cost UAVs to autonomously track a moving target. Real-time visual tracking is achieved by using an object detection algorithm based on the Kernelized Correlation Filter (KCF) tracker. A 3-axis gimbaled camera with separate Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is used to aim at the selected target during flights. The flight control algorithm for tracking tasks is implemented on a customized quadrotor equipped with an onboard computer and a microcontroller. The proposed system is experimentally validated by successfully chasing a ground and aerial target in an outdoor environment, which has proven its reliability and efficiency.

Real-Time Planning and Control of Army UAVs Under Uncertainty

With advances in sensor technology and data fusion used in military operations, more information is available for decision making. A key question is how to make efiective use of this information. One speciflc area the Army has funded is the development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as part of its Future Combat Systems (FCS). These UAVs use information from higher level sensors as cues and perform part of the reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) mission. We develop a neuro-dynamic approach to real-time planning and control of unmanned aerial vehicles with a focus on accounting for vehicle risk and stochastic arrivals of new tasks.

5.3.2 Design of the Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition Squadron for the U.S. Army's Interim Brigade Combat Team

AbstractThe primary source of battlespace intelligence for the U.S. Army's proposed Interim Brigade Combat Team (BCT) is the Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA) Squadron. The fundamental role of the RSTA Squadron is to provide detailed situational understanding to the BCT Commander facilitating freedom of maneuver and the concentration of combat power at the decisive time and place. Technologically advanced systems should substantially enhance RSTA Squadron operations. Among the proposed systems in the Squadron are the Future Scout and Cavalry System (FSCS), tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (TUAV), ground‐based networked sensors (acoustic, seismic, magnetic, infrared, radio frequency), radio frequency (RF) detectors, and nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) reconnaissance systems. This paper outlines the process used to date for designing the RSTA Squadron and proposes an alternative approach: a systems engineering methodology to formulate, analyze and interpret RSTA Squadron design alternatives.