Autonomous Cooperative Levels of Multiple-Heterogeneous Unmanned Vehicle Systems
Yoo-Bin Bae, Yeong-Ung Kim, Jun-Oh Park, Hyo-Sung Ahn
TL;DR
This paper addresses the lack of a precise definition and classification scheme for autonomous cooperation among multi-heterogeneous unmanned vehicle systems. It defines autonomous cooperation as self-organized, human-free collaboration that accounts for external environments and real-time status sharing, and introduces a five-keyword framework to structure cooperative levels. The main contributions are the explicit concept definition and a scalable, 5-axis taxonomy that yields $3^5=243$ autonomous cooperative levels, illustrated with an example mapping (A1-B1-C3-D3-E2). This framework provides a foundation for assessing maturity and guiding the development of autonomous cooperative capabilities across heterogeneous vehicle networks, with potential impact on mission efficiency and safety in complex operations.
Abstract
As multiple and heterogenous unmanned vehicle systems continue to play an increasingly important role in addressing complex missions in the real world, the need for effective cooperation among unmanned vehicles becomes paramount. The concept of autonomous cooperation, wherein unmanned vehicles cooperate without human intervention or human control, offers promising avenues for enhancing the efficiency and adaptability of intelligence of multiple-heterogeneous unmanned vehicle systems. Despite the growing interests in this domain, as far as the authors are concerned, there exists a notable lack of comprehensive literature on defining explicit concept and classifying levels of autonomous cooperation of multiple-heterogeneous unmanned vehicle systems. In this aspect, this article aims to define the explicit concept of autonomous cooperation of multiple-heterogeneous unmanned vehicle systems. Furthermore, we provide a novel criterion to assess the technical maturity of the developed unmanned vehicle systems by classifying the autonomous cooperative levels of multiple-heterogeneous unmanned vehicle systems.