Κατεύθυνση / ειδίκευση Διαχείριση Πληροφορίας και Δεδομένων (ΔΕΔ)
Πληροφορική

2018-10-22

2018

Zafeiriadou Konstantina

Χατζηευθυμιάδης Ευστάθιος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πληροφορικής και Τηλεπικοινωνιών, Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών

A semantic framework for UAV interoperability based on STANAG 4586 standard

English

A semantic framework for UAV interoperability based on STANAG 4586 standard

The growing interest about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and their applications for both civilian and military purposes have led to the rapid development of their technology. UAVs provide an efficient alternative to manned aircrafts by allowing their remote operation and control. This is the reason why the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO consider UAVs an important asset in the accomplishment of a variety of mission objectives. The extensive evolution of UAVs has resulted in a wide range of different UAV platforms although, with proprietary, system-specific characteristics. In a combined service environment where cooperation and real time tasking are mandatory, the heterogeneity that UAVs bring works as barrier that impedes communication among unmanned systems. Hence, there is an obvious need to secure smooth and interoperable communication between different unmanned devices that should cooperate to accomplish a common mission or task. UAV integration, mutual control and sharing of the resultant information into the defense community is becoming highly urgent and raises interoperability as one of the most important policy to be achieved. Identifying the need for a common set of policies that assures efficient military operations, NATO proceeded to the specification of STANAG 4586 to define the standard interfaces required in a UCS (UAV Control System) to achieve interoperability among different UAV systems (UASs). However, if two systems are about to communicate in a way that makes sense, they must share the same language and vocabulary; in other words, they should be semantically interoperable. Semantic Web technologies and ontologies can be used towards that direction.
The current thesis describes a proof-of-concept implementation that enables interoperability between STANAG 4586-compliant Ground Control Stations (GCSs) and UAVs by means of Semantic Web technologies. The proposed system exploits an OWL ontology that provides the required terminology (i.e., concepts, relationships, attributes) among the UAS elements. The design of the implemented system along with the data elements and message formats used for information exchange are leveraged by the standardization provided by STANAG 4586. Experimental evaluation is based on flight tests using MAVLink protocol UAVs (MAVs). The performed tests prove feasibility of the proposed architecture. The system implementation verifies Semantic Web practical potential to achieve interoperability between different GCSs and UAVs by adopting STANAG 4586 as the underlying communication protocol.

Technology - Computer science

ontology, Semantic Web, OWL, SPARQL, interoperability, UAV, communication protocol, STANAG 4586, MAVLink

Yes

6

Yes

47

131

File access is restricted only to the intranet of UoA.

https://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr/uoa/dl/object/2812663