BioCABLE: Bio-inspired System for Command & Control of Multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles in Anti-Access/Area-Denial & Bandwidth-Limited Environments Navy SBIR FY2015.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2015.1 Topic No.: N151-020 Topic Title: BioCABLE: Bio-inspired System for Command & Control of Multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles in Anti-Access/Area-Denial & Bandwidth-Limited Environments Proposal No.: N151-020-0927 Firm: EpiSys Science, Inc. 12234 Boulder View Dr. Poway, California 92064-5339 Contact: Bo Ryu Phone: (858) 805-5608 Abstract: US Navy must execute missions with multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) in hostile environments, where the presence of A2/AD technology by enemy force may result in limited communication bandwidth and/or periodic disruption to our UAV assets. To ensure the safety and success of UAVs in such missions, we proposes the Bio-inspired System for Command & Control of Multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles in Anti-Access/Area-Denial & Bandwidth-Limited Environments (BioCABLE) as a robust command, control and communication solution. BioCABLE first enables robust and autonomous navigation of multiple UAVs operating in hostile areas in constant adaptation to the observed level of communication threats (or disruptions). Our advanced swarming capability allows UAVs to dynamically reposition themselves, in a fully autonomous manner, in response to constantly changing communication threat levels being monitored at individual UAVs, while attempting to maintain robust & reliable multi-hop network topology in order to ensure timely transmission of critical information. Second, BioCABLE is empowered with declarative and cognitive networking capability which ensures that heterogeneous UAVs and other assets can instantly form secure networks without a priori planning, and provide robust connectivity & dynamic adaptation to both intentional and unintentional threats on communication resources of UAVs. Benefits: The proposed BioCABLE system provides multiple UAVs with the capability to autonomously avoid enemy A2/AD locations that are known at the onset or discovered during a mission, while forming an ad-hoc communication network of heterogeneous assets, and intelligently managing the data flow in the presence of bandwidth limitations caused by attenuation of signals due the geography or enemy AD technology. When complete this system will interface with current network technology that handles actual routing of digitized C2 information and adheres to existing and evolving standards like the Naval Interoperability Profile Standards. This software will be integrated into the Navy's Common Control System. For BioCABLE, we envision various concept of operation scenarios where multiple UAVs are tasked with reaching a destination location while avoiding enemy AA guns or jamming, and relaying a live video stream to a ground station or other asset at the origin despite limited bandwidth across certain links that are affected by interference from a jammer and environmental conditions caused by the geography. BioCABLE serves as a new powerful software tool to not only provide easy-to-follow guidance to remote operators on controlling multiple UAVs, but also making effective decisions on making necessary changes for adapting the allocation of communication resources. Our commercialization strategy of the proposed BioCABLE system is rooted on successfully productizing our software modules in the form of a Smart Multi-UAV Controller Unit. Based on Phase II results, our BioCABLE prototype system will be optimized for commercialization and transition to military platforms through our collaboration and transition partnership with Raytheon-Sensintel. EpiSci will collaborate with Raytheon-Sensintel to identify applications such as geological surveying in hazardous environments, internet in the sky and drone delivery. There are several companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook who are already in pursuit of similar technology, so we envision negotiations in the near future. If successful transition opportunities are established, the Phase III effort will be used to tailor and deliver specific configurations of the system. We understand that the US Navy wants to cover the spectrum of military operations, from small deployments and above out to the tactical edge. After we deliver the required capabilities to the Navy, the most likely path for transition of this SBIR from research to operational capability will be to transition the final product/technologies into multi-tiered Homeland Security operations such as the Border Patrol, airport security, and FEMA, as they could use this capability in automating their airborne operational capabilities. Return