Mechanism
Environmental-disruption sensing in the architecture aggregates departure detections across a plurality of sensing agents, producing corroboration scores through multi-source corroboration. Passive observation alone may not distinguish among the competing cause hypotheses that could explain an observed departure. The governed active-probe mechanism provides for this case: a sensing agent emits a governance-credentialed probe signal into a sensed field and analyzes the field's response to discriminate between candidate causes. The emission is itself a credentialed event, so downstream consumers can interpret the response in light of the probe that elicited it.
A probe operation begins with a hypothesis-formulation engine identifying a plurality of candidate cause hypotheses that could explain the observed departure. A probe-selection engine then selects a probe signal whose expected responses differ maximally across those candidate hypotheses, so that the collected response carries the greatest discriminating power. A probe-admissibility evaluator applies governance-policy-defined probe-admissibility rules before any emission occurs.
On a determination of admissibility, a probe-emission interface emits the selected probe signal with an authority credential identifying the probing agent, a response-collection interface collects responses from the probed field, and a hypothesis-discrimination engine updates the hypothesis probabilities from the observed responses. A probe-lineage recorder records the hypothesis set, the selected probe, the admissibility determination, the emitted signal, the collected responses, and the updated probabilities. Probes that fail admissibility are suppressed, and the suppression is itself recorded in the probe-lineage record, so that attempted-but-denied probes remain auditable from lineage alone.
Operating Parameters
Probe type is a primary operating parameter. The disclosed governed active probes include, without limitation: radio-frequency active probes transmitting characterized probe waveforms and analyzing backscatter and channel-state-information responses to distinguish moving targets, static obstructions, jammers, and propagation artifacts; optical active probes emitting characterized illumination and analyzing reflection, scatter, absorption, and polarization responses; acoustic active probes emitting characterized acoustic signatures and analyzing return responses to distinguish acoustically-reflective objects, absorptive obstructions, and acoustic spoofers; lidar active probes emitting characterized optical pulses and analyzing return-pulse statistics; radar active probes emitting characterized radar pulses with Doppler analysis; sonar active probes emitting characterized acoustic pulses in underwater environments; chemical active probes releasing characterized tracer compounds and sampling downwind or downstream; seismic active probes generating characterized ground-borne signals and analyzing propagation; magnetic active probes generating characterized magnetic fields and analyzing perturbation responses; composite multi-medium probes emitting coordinated probe signals across two or more field classes; and any governance-policy-defined probe type.
Admissibility constraints are the controlling operating parameter, distinguishing permissible probing from impermissible probing. Probe admissibility is evaluated through governance-policy-defined rules including, without limitation: spectrum-licensing compliance confirming that the emitting agent holds valid spectrum authorization; mission-interference evaluation confirming that the probe does not disrupt other governance-credentialed operations within the probed volume; adversarial-awareness evaluation weighing the information disclosed to an adversary by probe emission against the discrimination benefit; power-budget evaluation confirming that probe emission is within the agent's power and thermal limits; consent-governance evaluation confirming that the probe is permitted under applicable privacy and consent constraints; regulatory-compliance evaluation confirming compliance with applicable regulatory frameworks; and any governance-policy-defined admissibility rule.
Recording parameters specify what enters lineage. The probe-lineage record holds the hypothesis set, the selected probe, the admissibility determination, the emitted signal, the collected responses, and the updated hypothesis probabilities. Probes that fail admissibility are suppressed, and the suppression is recorded in the same probe-lineage record, so that the disposition of every probe, emitted or suppressed, is auditable from lineage alone.
Alternative Embodiments
Several embodiments of the governed active probe are disclosed through the disclosed probe types and admissibility rules. A radio-frequency embodiment transmits characterized probe waveforms and analyzes backscatter and channel-state-information responses to distinguish moving targets, static obstructions, jammers, and propagation artifacts. An optical embodiment emits characterized illumination and analyzes reflection, scatter, absorption, and polarization responses. Acoustic, lidar, radar, and sonar embodiments emit characterized acoustic, optical-pulse, radar-pulse, and underwater-acoustic signals respectively, each analyzing the corresponding return for discriminating structure.
Further embodiments operate in non-electromagnetic and composite media. A chemical embodiment releases characterized tracer compounds and samples downwind or downstream. A seismic embodiment generates characterized ground-borne signals and analyzes their propagation. A magnetic embodiment generates characterized magnetic fields and analyzes perturbation responses. A composite multi-medium embodiment emits coordinated probe signals across two or more field classes. Each embodiment, regardless of medium, is subject to the same governance-policy-defined admissibility evaluation, including the adversarial-awareness evaluation that weighs the information disclosed to an adversary by emission against the discrimination benefit, and any governance-policy-defined probe type is admitted within the same framework.
Composition
The governed active probe is disclosed in composition with multi-source corroboration. Environmental-disruption sensing aggregates departure detections across a plurality of sensing agents, producing corroboration scores. A probe response is one input to that aggregation: the hypothesis-discrimination engine updates hypothesis probabilities from the observed responses, and those updated probabilities feed the broader corroboration over the population of credentialed observations. Composition with corroboration thereby provides the analytical machinery that converts probe responses into environmental-disruption assessments. The probe also composes with the broader governance chain: the emitted signal, the collected responses, and their lineage are governance-credentialed and recorded by the probe-lineage recorder, subject to the same admissibility, lineage, and audit treatment as the passive observations consumed by the same sensing primitive. The architecture applies its credentialing rules to active emission and to passive observation alike.
Prior Art Distinction
Conventional active-sensing systems, including radar, lidar, and sonar, emit characterized signals and analyze their returns, but the authority to emit is governed externally to the system and the emission is recorded, if at all, in an internal log of varying audit quality. The disclosed governed active-probe mechanism differs in that the probe is selected to discriminate among an explicit set of candidate cause hypotheses, the emission is subjected to a governance-policy-defined admissibility evaluation, accounting for spectrum licensing, mission interference, regulatory constraints, adversarial-awareness considerations, and power budget, before it occurs, and the entire transaction, the hypothesis set, the selected probe, the admissibility determination, the emitted signal, the collected responses, and the updated probabilities, is written to a probe-lineage record. Probes that fail admissibility are suppressed and the suppression is itself recorded, so that the disposition of every probe is auditable from lineage. The mechanism is distinguished by treating emission, like observation, as a governance-credentialed event whose authorization and discriminating purpose are recorded in lineage.
Disclosure Scope
This disclosure covers the governed active-probe mechanism as practiced in any embodiment in which a sensing agent emits a governance-credentialed probe signal into a sensed field to distinguish between competing cause hypotheses for an observed departure, the probe is selected to maximize discrimination across those hypotheses, the emission is subject to governance-policy-defined admissibility evaluation, and the hypothesis set, selected probe, admissibility determination, emitted signal, collected responses, and updated probabilities are recorded in a probe-lineage record. The disclosure extends to radio-frequency, optical, acoustic, lidar, radar, sonar, chemical, seismic, magnetic, and composite multi-medium probes, and to any governance-policy-defined probe type, regardless of the underlying physical mechanism of emission.
The mechanism described here is disclosed in U.S. Provisional Application No. 64/049,409.
