Air Vehicles Scientist Earns 2009 Harold Brown Award

  • Published
  • By Ms. Robyn Dinwiddie
  • Air Vehicles
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Dr. Derek Kingston, Air Force Research Laboratory Air Vehicles Directorate, received the 2009 Harold Brown award, the highest Air Force award presented to a scientist or engineer who applies research to a problem in the field. The AF chief scientist selects recipients for the honor based on their contributions leading to substantial improvements in AF operational effectiveness.

Dr. Kingston's research focuses on automation tools that enable teams of unmanned air vehicles to work together cooperatively in fulfillment of mission objectives. Whereas current UAV employment methods--both strategic and tactical--rely on vehicle isolation, or loose interaction at best, Dr. Kingston's research conversely seeks to ensure that the utility of the whole (UAV team) is greater than the sum of its parts.

Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions constitute the area for which this premise is most immediately applicable, given the AF's urgently pressing need for safe, remote monitoring of convoy routes for improvised explosive device emplacement. Dr. Kingston's efforts have notably improved, at both theoretical and practical levels, the technology needed for cooperative UAV route surveillance. Specifically, he developed and analytically validated an innovative algorithm enabling a UAV team to achieve optimal formation for performing route surveillance, subsequently applying this advancement to an AFRL rapid reaction program focused on surveying roads for IED emplacement. Dr. Kingston's contributions also include algorithms for path planning, sensor steering and the application of cooperative control for efficient, robust UAV routing.

The most striking aspect of his work is its design around completely decentralized operations. This provides UAVs the autonomy needed for meeting mission requirements even during periods of nonconnectivity (communication losses), which are common in operational use. Additionally, this technology applies to a diversity of other applications, such as route surveillance, forest fire or hazardous material monitoring, border patrol, and integrated base defense. Dr. Kingston's efforts add significant value to the scientific community's body of knowledge and, more importantly, to the preeminent capabilities of the AF.