No abstract

Coalition or Joint Forces operations involving multiple countries utilizing Net-Centric Warfare (NCW) is the need and trend of the modern battlefield. These heterogeneous forces have heterogeneous equipments adhering to their country's standards and specifications. This pushes for systems-of-systems interoperability to allow multinational manning of platforms operating within a combined command structure. The next generation coalition environment requires sharing of equipment, data and resources using an interoperable command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) infrastructure. The evolution of military sensor technologies at an unprecedented rate requires the use of various existing sub-systems, Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) as well as Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors due their inherent advantages. The data from these entities needs to be exchanged flawlessly so that the best Common Operational Picture (COP) of the battlefield can be presented to the command structure for taking the correct action. In this paper, we present an approach towards achieving programmatic, constructional and operational interoperabilty for NATO C4ISR infrastructure using the NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture (NGVA), Robotics and Autonomous Systems Ground (RAS-G) Interoperability Profiles (IOPs) and Multilateral Interoperability Programme (MIP) standards to support the future coalition battlefields. It allows the NATO military land system vehicles to be able to exchange control and command with the Unmanned Vehicles (UxVs) in turn, allow the exchange of data with higher echelons like command centres without any dependencies and bottlenecks

Today's military platforms are equipped with variety of sensors and effectors. However, these components are rarely interconnected or are only linked via manufacturer-specific, proprietary interfaces. This hinders changes to and extensions of platform components. Often platform modifications are only possible with the help of the original integrator, which complicates a seamless integration of new components. In order to unify the interfaces of sub-systems and enhance platform interoperability, several open architecture initiatives have been launched on national and multi-national levels. Some as the NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) have already recognised that new approaches for system verification and acceptance need to be considered. Nevertheless, these considerations are still on the conceptual level and no tools for rigorous interface conformity testing are yet in place. This paper describes a concept supporting the testing of interface specifications in early standardisation phases as well as the verification of platform architecture implementations in actual systems later on. On the example of the NGVA, a test framework is presented focussing on the reuse of test artefacts from early specification checking for later conformance and final acceptance testing. The approach is validated by means of a case study supporting the NGVA standardisation

The battlefield scenarios are changing around the world presenting new challenges for the military. Battlefield environments have moved from the open to urban and constricted spaces forcing the military to adopt new doctrines and tactics for effective attack and defence. Whilst there have been many advances at the equipment level to support the ground forces i.e. the evolution of military vehicles and the introduction of robotic systems, there still exists a big gap in making these two entities work together. This gap also makes the idea of achieving a fully functional Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) environment less feasible. The data collected by the vehicles and robots need to be exchanged flawlessly so that the best operational picture of the battlefield can be presented to the ground forces for taking the correct action. Since the military operations nowadays require multinational forces conducting operations together, it is essential that the equipments from various countries are able to interoperate with each other in a coalition environment. Furthermore, the range of legacy sensors and other sub-systems available need to be interoperable with the new vehicles and robots to provide the teeth to the military for conducting operations. In order to support NATO military land vehicles for standardisation and interoperability, the NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) proposes an open architecture approach to land vehicle platform design and integration. The Robotics and Autonomous Systems Ground (RAS-G) Interoperability Profiles (IOPs) from the US Army, on the other hand, describe hardware and software interfaces for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). In this paper, we present an approach towards achieving interoperability between the NGVA and IOP to support the future coalition battlefields. It allows the NGVA-based military land vehicles to be able to control UGVs and allows the exchange of ISR and other required data without any dependencies and bottlenecks

With the proliferation of new and improved sensors for military and civilian vehicles, the challenges for integrating the sensors, retrieving and processing data from them have become more complex. Typically, these sensors come with APIs as specified by the manufacturer and hence integrating newer sensors on the existing and newer platforms as well as interoperability with other platform sub-systems is highly taxing. Also, these sensors open the realm of possibilities for further automation of vehicles. Types and levels of automation are a big challenge as to how much automation is possible and should be allowed, and how to effectively use the sensors for automation and informing the vehicle crew. The NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) proposes an open architecture approach to land vehicle platform design and integration and standardises the interfaces and protocols for military vehicle systems integration. However, the NGVA does not specify any feedback mechanisms exploiting the available sensor data to support the vehicle crew. In this paper, we present a simple crew assistance system which integrates NGVA-compliant sensors and includes an adaptable rule-based interface for sensor data processing. This crew assistance system takes into consideration human factors such as human cognitive and physical workload and informs the crew members about ongoing critical events derived from available sensor data using visual, audio and haptic feedbacks in the form of alarms to increase their Situational Awareness by raising alarms on detection of specific events and making intelligent future predictions