Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) are often required to carry diverse payload varieties; deployment into mixed Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions Tagging, Tracking, and Locating (TTL), Command, Control, Communications, and Situational Awareness (C3SA), Find, Fix, and Finish (F3), etc. influence the necessary components in the payload and hence the payload type. However, most current payloads have unique electronic interfaces, rendering reconfiguration or swapping of new/modified payloads to SUASs a costly process. To address this problem, VIPMobile proposes the development of a standard payload interface (SPI) in the form of an SUAS ISR Micro-Payload Interface Master Module (PIMM), a technology based on a previous VIPMobile system. The SPI solution identifies relevant sensors, munitions, and other payload components for SUAS and provides flexible and scalable interconnection between the SUAS and payloads. Cross queuing of sensor data and digital communication between payload components is standardized through XML-derived the Cursor-on-Target machine language. The Micro-PIMM will have a ground control segment, granting on-the-ground CCT operatives access to avionics, firing, and override solutions. The overall system will enable end users to efficiently and cost effectively plug and play various ISR payloads into SUASs without swapping out or reconfiguring the entire payload from mission to mission.
Benefit: The SUAS ISR Micro-PIMM overcomes typical SUAS-payload incompatibility and enables efficient and cost-effective plug and play of various ISR payloads into SUASs without swapping out or reconfiguring the entire payload from mission to mission. It also allows on-the-ground Combat Control Teams tactical access to and control of the avionics/payloads and sensor data of the SUAS. Commercially, there is a rising demand for UAVs and accompanying technology, especially with respect to SUAS. Potential application of the Micro-PIMM can be extended to larger UAV systems (perhaps to all unmanned vehicles), and to other (DoD) departments and branches, such as Customs, CNTPO, Army and Homeland Defense. The Micro-PIMM can be delivered as a Tactical ISR Package to current end users of VIPMobile solutions such as CAG JSOC. The package would consist of a UAV equipped with the Micro-PIMM, an EICT Field Computing Device for the most forward deployed Combat Control Teams (CCT) that communicates with the Micro-PIMM, and an ATC Tactical Briefcase that interacts with both the PIMM in the air and the EICT on the ground.
Keywords: Small Unmanned Aerial Systems, Payload Interface, Pimm, Plug And Play, Ground Segment
