cientists have long recognized different hardware, software, processes to it without signi? cant cost growth,” the value of unmanned systems and interfaces—different everything,” said Lt. Col. James Kennedy, Product as tools to conduct exploration said Ernst. “That’s what we’re trying to Manager Common Systems Integration Sand research. The advantages avoid.” with the Unmanned Aircraft Project are many, and the cost is usually less “UCS ensures that the interface stan- Of? ce, PEO Aviation at Redstone Ar-than would be incurred for a research dard is known to all vendors so we don’t senal, Alabama. “We typically end up ship or manned aircraft mission. have proprietary interface standards having to go back to the same vendor Original equipment manufacturers where only the OEM can add or subtract who wrote the software initially to add (OEMs) who make unmanned underwa-ter vehicles (UUVs), unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) usually provide the ve-hicle, control station, software and com-munication protocols, which are almost always unique to that system.As technology and the market mature, there is a growing demand for ? exibility to adapt systems for different missions, operate different systems from a com-mon control station and upgrade them easily when new and innovative appli-cations become available. While the armed forces are leading the way, commercial, academic, home-land security, law enforcement and other users of unmanned systems can bene? t, too.“We’ve standardized the means of controlling and communicating be-tween the ground and the bird and all of the systems involved. The standard that we’re working on is called the Un-manned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Con-trol Segment, or UCS, and it is hardware independent,” said Rich Ernst, who leads the USC architecture development in DoD.” All systems do not necessarily use the same functions, but with many systems you have to accept what functions the OEM provides. Some are simple, and others complex. Some systems give you more than you really need, and some not quite enough. With UCS, you can now mix and match applications, using only what you need, and you can take advan-tage of new applications as they become available. “We can identify speci? c require-ments and create applications that meets that requirement, or closes the gap,” said Ernst.“We’ve been limited by the fact that OEMs have different approaches with www.seadiscovery.comMarine Technology Reporter 39MTR #2 (34-49).indd 39 MTR #2 (34-49).indd 39 2/21/2014 11:07:16 AM2/21/2014 11:07:16 AM