Proliferated Autonomous Weapons: An Example of Cooperative Behavior

Abstract

Abstract : This exploratory research examines whether modern communications and sensors, advances in robotics architectures, and adaptations of analytical modeling of natural systems may permit the development of unique proliferated weapon concepts employing swarms of weapons. On the most fundamental level, the work seeks to examine whether application of the robotics architectures and the cooperative behavior exhibited by natural systems can in fact elicit desired weapon behaviors. Second, the research examines whether there are technologies available to support the concept. The research is intended to demonstrate the potential feasibility of the concept, not to develop a definitive set of weapon system requirements or to argue for the adoption of this concept to the exclusion of existing concepts. The weapons use LADARs (LASER Detection And Ranging) with limited fields of regard and automatic target recognition algorithms. Simple communications of limited range across the swarm of weapons in the radio frequency (RF) or infrared (IR) spectrum compensate for the limited fields of regard of the LADARs. Weapons within communications range keep aware of what the other weapons are seeing and the actions they are taking. A simple rule set of discrete behaviors adapted from modeling of natural systems (e.g., flocking of birds, food foraging by ants) governs the operation of the weapons as they search for, home on, and attack targets.