Concept of operations

Abstract: Looks, in depth, at corporate logistics strategy, particularly with regard to the USA. Discusses strategy referring to a general concept of operations guiding all activities towards an ultimate goal – global rather than local. Itemizes some major American firms and their attitudes and considers their policies and results. Shows supply chain management and cycle time compression to be complementing logistics strategies for progressive US firms.

Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for managing an environment in a development architecture framework. Service of a system is managed based on service level agreements and/or operations level agreements. A plurality of system management operations are performed. The system management operations include start-up and shut-down operations, back-up and restore operations, archiving operations, security operations, and performance monitoring operations. Service is planned in order to anticipate and implement changes in the system.

Abstract: IntroductionAs a result of advances in communication, computation, sensor and energy storage technologies, as well as carbon fiber-reinforced plastic materials, micro unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are available at affordable prices. On this basis many new application areas, such as the in-depth reconnaissance and surveillance of major incidents, will be possible. Uncontrolled emissions of liquid or gaseous contaminants in cases of volcanic eruptions, large fires, industrial incidents, or terrorist attacks can be analyzed by utilizing UAV (Figure 1). Hence, the use of cognitive Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for distributing mobile sensors in incident areas is in general a significant value added for remote sensing, reconnaissance, surveillance, and communication purposes.1Figure 1: Deployment Scenario: Chemical Plume Detection with an Autonomous Micro UAV Mesh Network.In the near future police departments, fire brigades and other homeland security organizations will have access to medium- and small-size UAV and will integrate them in their work flow. The use of non-military frequencies and civil communication technologies gains in importance for purposes of safety and security missions, since the frequency pool is limited and nearly exhausted. In particular, regionally organized public authorities and small rescue organizations like fire brigades often have insufficient access to frequencies and expensive communication equipment. Thus, using civil mobile communication systems is often the only effective workaround for homeland security organizations.This is also one of the major issues for wireless communication in the area of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Besides flight regulation, wireless communication is an important aspect of UAS as telemetry information (navigation, control, guidance) and sensor data usually have to be transmitted to a mission control center (MCC) in nearly real-time. Today, there is no viable alternative for this type of transmission besides using civil mobile communication networks. Unfortunately, there is no foreseeable solution in terms of frequency assignment for UAS. For efficient sensor coverage of large industrial and incident areas, fast and flexible strategies for collecting sensor data through an autonomous, reliably connected UAV need to be developed. In this article we focus on the civilian concepts of operations (CONOPS) for UAV, in particular for small-scale UAV. Viable concepts on the system level for leveraging public wireless communication networks for UAV-based cognitive remote sensing are presented with respect to both existing constraints and user requirements.The article is structured as follows: we first present the current state of the art and related research activities in the area of UAS communication. Civilian concepts of operations (CONOPS) for purposes of homeland security are discussed in the next section. Subsequent sections address the requirements, concepts and solutions for Air-to-Air (A2A), Air-to-Ground (A2G), and UAS-backend communication. On this basis we then show a methodology for agent-based UAV-mobility for areas with insufficient communication. The article ends suggestions for future research.Related Work and ProjectsSeveral research investigations have been done in the area of UAS. However, UAS communication aspects mostly address proprietary communication systems and usually do not consider public wireless infrastructures since these systems have been mostly deployed by military organizations in the past. Hence, we identify a demand for more in-depth contributions for UAS communication by means of public wireless networks.Tiwari and others have studied the placement planning problem of an airborne network.2 They offer a toolbox to optimize the ground coverage while maintaining a certain degree of reliability and connectivity. By introducing practical scenarios for deployment, the interaction between communication design and mobility planning is shown. …

Abstract: Many applications of small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) have been envisioned. These include surveillance of key assets such as pipelines, rail, or electric wires, deliveries, search and rescue, traffic monitoring, videography, and precision agriculture. These operations are likely to occur in the same airspace in presence of many static and dynamic constraints such as airports, and high wind areas. Therefore, small UAS, typically 55 pounds and below, operations need to be managed to ensure safety and efficiency of operations is maintained. This paper will describe the Concept of Operations (ConOps) for NASA's UAS Traffic Management (UTM) research initiative. The UTM ConOps is focused on safely enabling large-scale small UAS (sUAS) operations in low altitude airspace. The UTM construct supports large-scale visual line of sight and beyond visual line of sight operations. It is based on two primary mantras: (1) flexibility where possible and structure where necessary (2) a risk-based approach where geographical needs and use case indicate the airspace performance requirements. Preliminary stakeholder feedback and initial UTM tests conducted by NASA show promise of UTM to enable large-scale low altitude UAS operations safely.

Abstract: Military systems are the motivational driver for much of the technology development conducted at applied research laboratories around the world. As the needs of the world's militaries change, so does the focus of this research and development. In this paper, we discuss how the fundamental characteristics of military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) impose requirements and constraints on sensing and reconnaissance. We highlight the importance of a new class of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for network-centric military urban operations. We review some of the UAVs that have been developed in recent years, and that are under development, with particular attention to their endurance, portability, performance, payload, and communication capabilities. Selected university testbeds are also briefly noted. Over the last few years there has been considerable research focused on how these small UAVs, both individually and collectively, can operate autonomously in urban environments and help capture and communicate needed information. We discuss some of this research; specific topics covered include guidance and control for autonomous operation, multi-UAV coordination and route optimization, and ad-hoc networking with UAV nodes. A new concept of operations is described that relies on coordination and control of a heterogeneous suite of small UAVs for surveillance and reconnaissance operations in urban terrain