Mission Support for Drones: a Policy Based Approach

We examine the impact of increasing autonomy on the use of airborne drones in joint operations by collaborative parties. As the degree of automation employed increases towards the level implied by the term "autonomous", it becomes apparent that existing control mechanisms are insufficiently flexible. Using an architecture introduced by Bertino et al. in [1] and Verma et al. in [2], we consider the use of dynamic policy modification as a means to adjust to rapidly evolving scenarios. We show mechanisms which allow this approach to improve the effectiveness of operations without compromise to security or safety.