Patent ID: 8200605

Claim:
A decision making unit for controlling at least one control system of a set of control systems of a platform, said decision unit comprising: a receiving module configured to receive at least one ability request from requesting autonomous sub-systems arranged to detect a need for requesting an ability based on platform status information generated from a set of subsystems; a preconditioning module configured to precondition the at least one received ability request, wherein said preconditioning module is arranged to parameterize the at least one received ability request so as to adopt the at least one received ability request for further processing in the decision unit; a filter configured to filter the preconditioned at least one ability request, wherein said filter is arranged to apply at least one rule package on the at least one ability request so as to identify whether or not the at least one ability request is a valid request; a generator configured to generate a set of behaviour instructions associated with the filtered at least one ability request, wherein the generator is configured to generate the set of behaviour instructions is arranged to generate at least one task, wherein each task is related to a set of predetermined behaviour instructions, wherein the set of predetermined behaviour instructions comprises a combination of instructions relating to guidance, sensor use, payload and communication; a processor configured to priority process the filtered at least one ability request; and a generator configured to generate at least one control signal depending upon a prioritization process arranged to determine which of the filtered at least one ability request is to be communicated as control signals to different control systems of the set of control systems, wherein the control signal comprises information about the generated set of behaviour instructions related to the associated filtered at least one ability request so as to control the different control systems of the platform.