Experimental Demonstrations of CATL, the Collaborative Autonomy Tasking Layer

This paper describes the continued efforts on the development of and experiments conducted with CATL (Collaborative Autonomy Tasking Layer). CATL aims to enable collaborative autonomy between heterogeneous nodes in communications-limited environments. An example application of CATL would be the collaboration between autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). To demonstrate feasibility, CATL was used in multiple simulated and real-life experiments, enabling a large number of multinational parties to share information and cooperate using their autonomous vehicles. The group involved institutes from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE). These institutions worked together in various experiments, demonstrating CATL in use cases for Naval Mine Counter-Measures (MCM), Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Submarine Escape and Rescue (SMER).