U.S. Navy develops unmanned vehciles software

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WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy has developed a device similar to a common master remote control for all military unmanned vehicles.

The prescribed data model developed by the Office of Naval Research is a piece of software that enabled development of the Common Control System.

Designated the Universal Character Set, the code-based software acts allows control an entire unmanned system -- from the vehicle itself to its payload.

The software can be added to any unmanned aerial vehicle system and enables the UAV to communicate and work with other system aircraft. The software can also be used with maritime and land unmanned systems.

"Someday in the near future you'll have a sailor controlling an Air Force unit's unmanned system or an airman sitting at a desk controlling a naval unmanned system or a Marine controlling an Army platform," said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder. "That's the kind of ability we will have with this new Common Control System -- that's our future."

ONR is working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Office of Strategic and Tactical Systems, the Naval Air Systems Command and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and others on continued development of the software.

"Testing and experimentation were conducted in 2012," ONR said. "ONR validated that UCS can be used to develop common control services that provide total functionality for a particular Common Control System, the Bi-Directional Remote Video Terminal. As a result, ONR was able to provide OSD with a blueprint for all military services to be able to build a BDRVT using UCS-developed common control services.