A unified cooperative control architecture for UAV missions

In this paper, we propose a unified cooperative control architecture (UCCA) that supports effective cooperation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and learning capabilities for UAV missions. Main features of the proposed UCCA include: i) it has a modular structure; each function module focuses on a particular type of task and provide services to other function modules through well defined interfaces; ii) it allows the efficient sharing of UAV control and onboard resources by the function modules and is able to effectively handle simultaneously multiple objectives in the UAV operation; iii) it facilitates the cooperation among different function modules; iv) it supports effective cooperation among multiple UAVs on a mission's tasks, v) an objective driven learning approach is also supported, which allows UAVs to systematically explore uncertain mission environments to increase the level of situation awareness for the achievement of their mission/task objectives.