Author Description

The authors analyzed existing subsystem technologies in which the Marine Corps may immediately invest and employ at the company level and below. Based on lessons learned from previous research for the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory's Unmanned Tactical Autonomous Control and Collaboration (UTACC) program, we aimed to determine if there is a subsystem that could consistently and dramatically improve operational performance in a segment of mission tasks that the Marine Corps may add to its technology portfolio. The researchers developed a standard template to evaluate subsystem technologies by considering the characteristics of a subsystem, the technology readiness level, and the subsystem's contribution to the tasks associated with predefined mission sets. We considered the mission sets of counter unmanned aerial systems, local security, and targeting. Based on the analysis of the technologies, the researchers recommend pairing Planck Aerosystems' autonomous take-off and landing technology with a quadcopter of the Marine Corps' choosing and adding WiBotic's wireless charging technology to provide a persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability that does not currently exist in the Marine Corps' portfolio. Additionally, the researchers recommend incorporating Edgybees' digital map overlay and Sentient's moving object detection technologies to provide a more robust system-of-systems.The Marine Corps' primary vehicle for conducting technology research is the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL). MCWL's mission is to "[identify] future challenges and opportunities, [develop] warfighting concepts, and comprehensively [explore] options in order to inform the combat development process to meet the challenges of the future operating environment" (United States Marine Corps. This research is the twelfth thesis in a series of efforts that support the research related to the MCWL Unmanned Tactical Autonomous Control and Collaboration (UTACC) syst