Generic Vehicle Architecture for the integration and sharing of in-vehicle and extra-vehicle sensors

In this paper we present a Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA), developed as part of the UK MOD GVA programme that addresses the issues of dynamic platform re-role through modular capability integration and behaviour orchestration. The proposed architecture addresses the need for: a) easy integration with legacy and future systems, and architectures; b) scalability from individual sensors, individual human users, vehicles and patrols to battle groups and brigades; c) rapid introduction of new capabilities in response to a changing operational scenario; d) be agnostic of communications systems, devices, operating systems and computer platforms. The GVA leverages the use of research output and tools developed by the International Technology Alliance (ITA) in Network and Information Science1 programme, in particular the ITA Sensor Fabric2-4 developed to address the challenges in the areas of sensor identification, classification, interoperability and sensor data sharing, dissemination and consumability, commonly present in tactical ISR/ISTAR, 5 and the Gaian Dynamic Distributed Federated Database (DDFD) 6-8 developed the challenges of accessing distributed sources of data in an ad-hoc environment where the consumers do not have the knowledge of the location of the data within the network. The GVA also promotes the use of off-the-shelf hardware, and software which is advantageous from the aspect of easy of upgrading, lower cost of support and replacement, and speed of re-deploying platforms through a "fitted for but not with" approach. The GVA exploits the services orientated architecture (SOA) environment provided by the ITA Sensor Fabric to enhance the capability of legacy solutions and applications by enabling information exchange between them by, for example, providing direct near real-time communication between legacy systems. The GVA, a prototype implementation demonstrator of this architecture has demonstrated its utility to fusing, exploiting and sharing situational awareness information for force protection, and platform and device health and usage information for logistics and deployment management. © 2010 SPIE.