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Opportunity |
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DoD Communities of Interest |
Autonomy |
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Subject |
AFWERX Autonomous Prime Ecosystem Event |
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Due Date |
12 March 2021 |
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Government Organization |
AFWERX |
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Description Time: March 12, 2021 12:00 PM - 4:00PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada) Click HERE to Register to attend the event. About the Autonomous Prime Event: This will be a great opportunity for industry and investors to better understand this Air Force initiative. Sharing information about: Autonomous Prime: Simply stated, autonomy is a command and control paradigm in which one cedes a portion of their authority to a subordinate – in our case, a machine. Autonomy does not mean independence, as the system is acting as an agent on behalf of the human operator who sets the objectives and constraints and remains responsible for the autonomous system’s actions. Autonomy enables increasing the speed and quality of decisions leading to faster, more impactful actions. To this end, Autonomous Prime will create an environment to facilitate the rapid development, evaluation, and deployment of new autonomous capabilities. Our vision is to enable any potential providers to meaningfully contribute to the Department of the Air Force (DAF) autonomy goals. The Department of Defense (DoD) has been automating capabilities to accelerate activities, minimize operator workload, or substitute machines for humans for dangerous or repetitive tasks. As we develop new robust algorithms and increase available compute power, new opportunities arise to assist the operators and address the growing complexity and the increasing speed of multi-domain global operations. The combination of new machine learning (ML) based algorithms, optimized computers, computational memory, rich data sets, edge-computing paradigms, and live sensor inputs enables the timely generation of consistent information and knowledge that improve without constant human oversight and facilitate fully informed human decisions. In some instances, the system will be allowed to take low-level decisions to implement the human’s intent. In these cases, autonomy is given the authority to implement the recommended courses of action consistent with the human’s objectives and mission constraints. Autonomous Systems (AS) can be separated into two main categories, Autonomy at Rest (AAR) and Autonomy in Motion (AIM). AAR systems consist mostly of decision aids that provide inputs to a human operator. They typically have access to large amounts of data and information that are filtered, fused, and verified before being synthesized into a coherent view (knowledge), and in some cases, propose a recommended Course of Action (COA) for the operator’s selection. This is characterized as “Operator in the Loop.” Commercial Value: There are tremendous opportunities in the commercial sector for autonomy as it enables cost reduction and provides increased services without increased human labor. The possible applications of autonomy in the civilian and commercial world are becoming ubiquitous for unmanned aerial, ground, naval, underwater, and space settings, as well as the synchronized end-to-end manufacturing, warehousing, loading, delivery, and receiving processes. The advantages for commercial systems include reduced manpower, reduced risk, and performance improvements. In the future, autonomous systems may be capable of operating, collecting and processing data, and generating courses of action much faster than a human can interpret the information. They may also be capable of moving and acknowledging receipt of products more quickly than humans. Improved autonomy is necessary to reduce personnel since many platforms still rely heavily on human operators to maintain acceptable performance and efficiency. Because the capabilities of autonomous systems are improving rapidly, we anticipate that humans assisted by AI will outperform even the best human-controlled systems in the not too distant future. Military Value: The possible applications of autonomy directly mirror the commercial utility. The military sees further advantages focusing on performance improvements and tactics that would be impossible for manned systems to perform. Currently, the military typically uses a hybrid approach combining a human operator paired with an autonomous system—providing the most flexible operational approach while allowing humans to maintain control. The goal is to reduce the human monitoring role and have the autonomous system implement the human ‘intent.’ Autonomous systems can take action quicker than humans can. The systems process more diversified data while providing a refined answer and reducing information complexity. They also perform in environments that humans cannot, including high speed, high G-force, high temperature, lengthy flight times at higher operational altitudes without the need to replenish supplies, and other dangerous conditions (radiation, fire, explosive environments). Initial Focus topic: Our initial focus will be on Autonomous Air Mobility Systems, which offers many opportunities to demonstrate these capabilities and significant overlap with commercial sector needs. Future areas of interest may include ground support elements to automate cargo loading or other ground operations, as well as other base operations and functions (safety, maintenance, security, etc.). |
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