Formal Specification and Synthesis of Mission Plans for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

As unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions become increasingly complex, automated tools are needed to assist UAV operators in mission planning and execution. Formal methods such as model checking have recently been used for similar purposes, e.g. motion planning for ground robots. Here, we review applications of formal methods to problems in robot control and multi-agent planning and discuss how related techniques can be expanded to serve as the foundation for improved human-automation UAV intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission planning systems.