Autonomous Platforms
Autonomous platforms – The Army is particularly
interested in research in autonomous ground and air
vehicles, which must operate in open, urban and
cluttered environments. Robotics and autonomous
systems regardless of their missions require similar
concepts and technologies including:
i. Ability to move in very cluttered, irregular,
urban and underground terrains
ii. Ability to move effectively in contested
environments and survive attacks
i. Technologies to enable low electronic and
physical profiles
ii. Techniques to allow operators to be trained
quickly even for complex tasks
iii. Architectures to enable reprogrammable
platforms under dynamic conditions
iv. Sensors to detect obscured targets and to
characterize terrain obstacles
v. Autonomous ground and air structures, propulsion,
and mobility components
vi. Technologies to significantly reduce logistical
burdens
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)
The Army is interested in AI/ML research in areas
which can reduce the cognitive burden on humans and
improve overall performance through human-machine
teaming. AI/ML research is needed in areas such as:
i. Autonomous, intelligent maneuver and behaviors of
autonomous ground and air vehicles - object
recognition, threat warning, etc.
ii. Ability to analyze large, diverse data sets to
predict enemy intent and behaviors
iii. Technologies to ensure robust, resilient and
intelligent networking, cyber, electronic warfare
and analysis of adversary signals
iv. Data analysis capabilities to engage with and
exploit classified and unclassified sources in order
to produce enhanced intelligence products
v. Techniques to fuse data from disparate sources to
improve a particular mission
Data visualization and synthetic environments
The Army is interested in research involving
concepts that enable improved situational awareness
and the visualization and navigation of large data
sets and to enhance operational activities and
training and readiness. Research is needed in the
visualization of data in following areas:
i. Sensor data
ii. Large data sets
iii. Complex multi-source mode data sets
iv. Novel visualization and synthetic environment
approaches to enable improved training
v. Synthetic environments and networked
instrumentation approaches for virtual-live
validation of concepts and prototypes
Power Generation and Management Technologies
The Army frequently must operate where power
infrastructure is not available, on small vehicles
or for individual Soldiers. Solutions that enable
reliable power for vehicles, Soldiers, and munitions
might include research on:
i. Novel new power sources
ii. Power management algorithms to optimize
generation and usage
iii. Advanced low-power electronic technologies to
reduce power demand
iv. Compact power sources for small UAVs, robots,
smart munitions
Sensing
The Army is interested in developing a detailed
understanding of the environments and activities in
the areas where it operates. Research is needed in
the areas of sensors and associated processing in
order to:
i. Detect people, equipment, weapons, and any other
object or action of interest
ii. Detect all targets even when obscured
iii. Detect based upon, physical, behavioral, cyber
or other signatures
Communications & Networks
It is critical the Army maintain secure, reliable
communications for Soldiers, vehicles and at fixed
locations even in austere environments. Research is
needed in the areas related to following:
i. Concepts and methodologies to enable robust,
secure networks
ii. Protocols
iii. Network interoperability including
multi-national partners
iv. High efficiency components
Computation
The Army has a growing need for high performance
computational capabilities to exploit large data
sets and to compute complex AI/ML algorithms for
many applications. Research is needed to improve
computational capabilities in the following areas:
i. Throughput
ii. Power efficiency
iii. Edge computing
Space
Like many commercial interests, the Army is
interested in exploiting space assets to solve a
range of problems. Research is needed to improve
space-based capabilities in the following areas:
i. Concepts enabling persistent, high-resolution
sensing of ground-based features, environments, and
targets
ii. Concepts enabling low-cost access to space
Internet of Things (IoT)
The Army needs to better integrate a wide range of
capabilities and equipment and capitalize on
commercial developments in the industrial and human
IOT. The Army’s interested is driven in part by
the fact that the amount of usable communication
bandwidth on the battlefield will be dynamic, and as
such automated reallocation of communication
resources and information sharing strategies are
more challenging than commercial ones. Research is
needed to improve Army IOT in the following areas:
i. New concepts, quantitative models and technical
approaches enabling automated management of IoT
ii. New machine learning techniques that accelerate
decision making to address the scale/volume of IoT
information and advance the science
iii. New approaches, low-complexity algorithms, and
methods to enable secure, resilient, and to
automatically managed IOT networks in highly
complex, mixed cooperative/adversarial,
information-centric environment
iv. Novel IoT approaches to enable improved training
and system evaluation
Quantum Technologies
The Army seeks to better employ quantum sciences in
a number of areas to improve the performance and
security of its future systems. Research is needed
in the following areas:
i. Quantum computing to solve highly complex
problems in real time
ii. Quantum sensing to achieve highly sensitive
characterization of activities and environments and
enable highly accurate navigation
iii. Quantum communications, and networking to
enable highly secure and efficient information flow
Signature Reduction
The Army needs to protect its Soldiers by making
them harder to detect and locate. Research is needed
to manage and reduce Army capability signatures in
the following areas:
i. Technologies, methodologies and concepts to
reduce the external signatures of Soldiers and of
all Army platforms and equipment
ii. Capabilities to reduce RF, optical, thermal,
acoustic, magnetic and any other signatures
Protection
The Army faces a number of current and future
threats which it must address to protect it
Soldiers. Research is needed to enhance Army
capabilities for survival in the following areas:
i. Sensors to detect chemical, biological,
radiological, nuclear, and explosive threats
ii. Lightweight, easy to manufacture armor
iii. Cyber protection technologies, methodologies,
and concepts to protect Army systems including
Soldiers, platforms, networks, and munitions
iv. Human performance optimization to endure harsh
and extenuating conditions
Human Performance
The Soldier is the foundation of all Army
capabilities. Technologies that reduce Soldiers’
mental or physical burden and allow them to react
faster than their adversaries is needed in the
following areas:
i. Human-machine interaction to insure autonomous
platforms are efficiently managed and exploited
ii. Measuring effectiveness of and enhancing
training tools and techniques
iii. Methodologies and approaches for effective
augmentation of Soldiers in areas of cognition,
perception, and physical performance
Underpinning Methodologies
Methodologies, frameworks, tools, facilities,
techniques, and experimentation concepts, which
underpin and enable advanced research and
development in all of the areas are of interest
including those which enhance the abilities to:
i. Collect, standardize, transform, and maintain
data to focus research and validate concepts
ii. Rapid modeling, development, and assessment of
technologies across widely distributed research
teams
iii. Integrate innovative technology applications
into current or future warfighting systems,
applications, and analysis systems to assess the
potential operational effectiveness of novel new
technology elements
iv. Automate data analytics to enhance discovery,
development and transition management of
technologies that address Army capability gaps
Assured Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT)
The Army is interested in research involving novel
new PNT technologies which could be key enablers for
many capabilities including autonomous vehicles,
communications, and land navigation. Solutions that
enable robust PNT for vehicles, Soldiers, munitions
might include research in the following areas:
i. PNT technologies which operate reliably in
GPS-degraded or denied areas which cannot be
exploited by adversaries
ii. Enhancements to commercial technologies to
enable them to meet Army needs
iii. Robust security techniques for PNT at all
levels
iv. PNT-enabled guidance and control
v. Algorithms and techniques to fuse data from
multiple PNT sources to provide robust capabilities
