Federated system mission management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10565783-B2
Application number	US-201614992572-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2016
Priority date	Jan 11, 2016
Publication date	Feb 18, 2020
Grant date	Feb 18, 2020

Abstract

One example includes a federated system manager. Asset adapters receive situational awareness data from a respective plurality of mission assets and convert the situational awareness data into a central data format. Mission constraint adapters receive mission constraint data associated with real-time mission constraints from a respective plurality of mission constraint databases and convert the mission constraint data into the central data format. A mission control adapter receives control data from a mission control station to convert mission control data into the central data format and to provide mission status data to the at least one mission control station for real-time control of the mission. A data model repository maintains a universal data model tracking real-time interactive states of the plurality of mission assets, the real-time mission constraints, and the mission control data. The data model repository also generates the mission status data in real-time based on the universal data model.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A federated system manager comprising:
a plurality of asset adapters configured to receive situational awareness data from a respective plurality of mission assets comprising at least one airborne mission asset, the plurality of asset adapters further being configured to convert respective situational awareness data in a first data format to a common data format, the situational awareness data comprising data associated with a status, a location, a previously unidentified obstacle identified by the at least one airborne mission asset or another mission asset, a type of unidentified obstacle identified by the at least one airborne mission asset or the other mission asset, and a location for the unidentified obstacle;
a plurality of mission constraint adapters configured to receive mission constraint data associated with real-time mission constraints from a respective plurality of mission constraint databases and to convert the mission constraint data in a second data format to the common data format;
at least one mission control adapter configured to receive mission control data from a respective at least one mission control station to convert the mission control data from a third data format to the common data format and to provide mission status data to the at least one mission control station for real-time control of a mission for the airborne asset; and
a data model repository configured to maintain a universal data model in the common data format, the universal data model being configured to track real-time interactive states of the plurality of mission assets, the real-time mission constraints, and the mission control data, the data model repository being further configured to provide the mission status data in real-time based on the universal data model, wherein the universal data model provides a graphical representation for the mission, the graphical representation comprising a graphical element for each of the airborne mission asset, the unidentified obstacle, and a graphical flight path representative of a flight path of the airborne mission asset to a mission objective, wherein the graphical flight path for the airborne mission asset is adjusted, corresponding to adjusting the flight path of the airborne mission asset to the mission objective, to avoid an effective range of the unidentified obstacle based on the type of unidentified obstacle identified by the at least one airborne mission asset or the other mission asset.

2. The manager of claim 1 , wherein the data model repository comprises a plug-in graphics framework configured to enable the mission status data to be provided in a graphical manner within a graphical virtual environment associated with a geographic region of interest based respectively on the situational awareness data, the mission constraint data, and the mission control data for display of the graphical virtual environment on a user interface device associated with the at least one mission control station.

3. The manager of claim 2 , wherein the at least one mission control adapter comprises a three-dimensional graphical rendering adapter configured to provide the mission status data comprising a real-time graphical rendering of the interactive states of the plurality of mission assets, the real-time mission constraints, and the mission control data within a graphical virtual environment.

4. The manager of claim 3 , further comprising a graphics library configured to maintain a plurality of predetermined modeled graphical elements that are associated with respective application-specific graphical elements corresponding to the plurality of mission assets, the real-time mission constraints, and the mission control data, such that the three-dimensional graphical rendering adapter is configured to provide the mission status data comprising the real-time graphical rendering of the interactive states of the respective application-specific graphical elements within the graphical virtual environment.

5. The manager of claim 4 , wherein the graphics library comprises:
a graphical asset library comprising a plurality of predetermined modeled graphical asset elements that are associated with the respective plurality of mission assets and graphical characteristic data associated with the plurality of mission assets; and
a graphical obstacle library comprising a plurality of predetermined modeled graphical obstacle elements that are associated with a respective plurality of mission obstacles and graphical characteristic data associated with the plurality of mission obstacles.

6. The manager of claim 2 , wherein the at least one mission control adapter comprises a map adapter configured to facilitate interface of the universal data model with a geospatial map software program configured to provide the graphical virtual environment, such that the map adapter can convert the real-time interactive states of the plurality of mission assets, the real-time mission constraints, and the mission control data from the common data format as graphical elements in the graphical virtual environment of the geospatial map software program.

7. The manager of claim 2 , wherein the at least one mission control adapter comprises a control input adapter configured to receive the mission control data from the user interface device to convert the mission control data from a communication protocol into the common data format to control the real-time interactive states of the plurality of mission assets and to convert the mission status data to the communication protocol to provide graphical changes to the mission status data associated with the real-time interactive states of the plurality of mission assets effected via the mission control data in the graphical virtual environment for display on the user interface device.

8. The manager of claim 1 , further comprising a communications adapter that is configured to convert a plurality of communication protocols associated with a network to the common data format to provide access of the data model repository to the network to facilitate at least one of control and status monitoring communications between a plurality of user interface devices and the data model repository via the network.

9. The manager of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of asset adapters are configured to receive the situational awareness data from the respective plurality of mission assets via respective data formats associated with mission planning/command and control interfaces, and to convert the respective first data format associated with the situational awareness data into the common data format.

10. The manager of claim 1 , wherein the at least one mission control adapter comprises a simulation input adapter configured to convert simulation vector inputs provided from a simulation interface associated with the at least one mission control station from a fourth data format to the common data format, wherein the simulation vector inputs comprise simulated mission assets and simulated mission constraints that are maintained in the universal data model, wherein the data model repository is configured to calculate real-time interactive states of the simulated mission assets and the simulated mission constraints relative to the mission control data in real-time, and to provide the mission status data in response to the interactive states of the simulated mission assets and the simulated mission constraints relative to the mission control data.

11. A computer-readable medium comprising a program that, when executed, is configured to implement a method for managing a mission associated with a federated system, the method comprising:
converting situational awareness data received vi

Assignees

• Oddo Louis
• Parekh Devang R
• Fung Henry H
• Cao Feng
• Azar Michel M
• Montgomery Benjamin
• Kim Wayne
• Abdulghani Naorus F
• Northrop Grumman Systems Corp

Inventors

• Oddo Louis
• Parekh Devang R
• Fung Henry H
• Cao Feng
• Azar Michel M
• Montgomery Benjamin
• Kim Wayne
• Abdulghani Naorus F

Classifications

• G06T17/00 Primary

  Three-dimensional [3D] modelling for computer graphics · CPC title

• G06F16/256 Primary

  in federated or virtual databases · CPC title