DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Distributed Collaborative Intelligence:

A Tactical Offset Strategy

Brian M. Sadler

Brett Piekarski

Stuart YoungDARPA OFFSET

30 January 2017

Brian.m.sadler6.civ@mail.mil

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Mega Cities and Urban Mixed Populations

Triple Canopy Jungle Subterranean

• 3rd Offset : Undersea and extended range air

• Tactical Offset : Unmanned systems to extend the reach and situational awareness for the Soldier across complex worlds

Tactical Offset

Extreme Terrain

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Tactical Intelligent Systems

for 2025 and Beyond

Underlying Assumptions• Large #’s of agents – 10s to swarms

• Heterogeneous mix – including Soldiers

• Highly collaborative systems

• Highly distributed systems

• Access to knowledge sources and increased

perception and awareness

• Increased cognitive behaviors and real-time op-

tempo adaptable operations

• Operation in complex and contested environments

– peer capabilities

Payoff• Extended reach, situational awareness, and

operational effectiveness against dynamic threats

in contested environments

• Technical and operational superiority through

intelligent, resilient and collaborative behaviors

Vision• Highly distributed and collaborative heterogeneous

teams of intelligent systems

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Axes of Complexity

These factors limit the operational capability for a given autonomy technology suite.

1. Complexity of the environment(s)2. Available infrastructure3. Operational tempo

4. Number of agents5. Degree of heterogeneity of the agents6. Agent behavior complexity and adaptability7. Degree of interaction and communication among the agents

(both machine and human agents)

The Army challenge: complex unknown environments, little or no infrastructure, and high operational tempo.

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

ARL Intelligent Systems Center

Decision-Making beyond

Human Op-Tempo

Adaptable to

New Environments

Comprehensive World Model

Common Sense Reasoning

Dynamic Learning

Self-organizing Robot Teams

Distributed Computing &

Autonomous Networking

Robust Physical Agents

Real-time Planning

Socially Cognizant Behaviors &

Adversarial Reasoning

Desired Attributes of Army Intelligent Systems

Mobility & Manipulation | Perception | Adaptive Control

• Cognitive Architectures

• Artificial Intelligence

• Reasoning/Knowledge Engineering

• Natural Language

• Semantics

• Big Data Analytics

• Machine Learning

• Distributed Computing (HPC)

• Game Theory• Process & Task Allocation

• Information Bandwidth Management

• Cooperation

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Provide fundamental science

underpinnings of autonomous

systems for the Army

From micro-systems to combat vehicles

Soldiers/Unmanned System

Teaming:

• Combat multiplier

• Team member

• Heterogeneous groups

• Following commander’s intent

ARL Intelligent Systems Center

Robotics

CTA

MAST

CTA

Internal ARL

Research

ARO

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Micro Autonomous Systems and

Technology (MAST)

Collaborative Technology Alliance (CTA) – 2008-2017

Enhance tactical situational awareness in urban and complex

terrain by enabling the autonomous operation of a collaborative

ensemble of multifunctional, mobile microsystems –Rapid and Mobile ISR for the Dismounted Soldier

Caves, Strategic

Bunkers,

Subterranean

Jungles and Under

CanopiesMegacities and

Urban

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

MAST CTA

Communications, Navigation

& Coordination

Mobility, Control, &

EnergeticsSensing, Perception,

& Processing

Three Cross-Cutting Research Thrusts and a Joint Experimentation Thrust

• Indoor/Outdoor GPS-denied Navigation

• Dealing with Uncertainty

• Heterogeneous Collaborative Systems

• Aggressive Maneuvers & Collaborative

Behaviors

• Robust Multi-Spectral Comms Solutions

• Novel systems – flapping wing/cyclocopter

• Perching & Grasping

• Gust Mitigation

• Novel Power Source

• Understanding Ambulation over Complex

Terrain

• Hair-like Arrayed Sensors for Gust and

Acceleration Sensing

• Robust State Estimation

• Vision and SWaPP Constrained State-

Estimation

• 5g 220 GHz Radar

• Stereo/Optic Flow Sensor Fusion

Joint Experimentation

• Integrate and extend lower-level capabilities from core

research tasks

• Evaluate results on platforms performing elements of mission-

like scenarios

• Involve collaborations among multiple institutions, centers,

and ARL

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

MAST CTA & the ARL Enterprise

• Bio-Inspired Sensors and Controls Team

• (SEDD-Materials) - Sensor Integration, State-Estimation, Human In-The-Loop Controls, PNT

• Microsystems Mechanics Team

• (VTD-Sci Mvr) - Aeromechanics, Soft Materials, Fluid Dynamics, Controls, Flight Dynamics

• Manipulation and Mobility Team

• (VTD-Sci Mvr) - Self-righting, grasping

• Asset Control and Behavior Branch

• (CISD-Info Sci) - collaborative behaviors, network aware communications, GPS-Denied nav

• Tactical Network Assurance Branch

• (CISD-Info Sci) - Networked behaviors, VHF and Optical Comms

• Smart Swarm Munitions Team• (WMRD-Sci for Lethality & Prot) – Vehicles,

propulsion, networking, perception

• New infrastructure, labs, and test facilities

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

The RCTA Vision

Making unmanned systems an integral part of the small unit team

Systems that:

• Understand the environment

• Learn from experience

• Adapt to dynamic situations

• Possess a common world view

• Communicate naturally

• Conduct useful activity

• Can act independently, but

within well prescribed bounds

Through research to enable and advance:

• Abstract reasoning

• Learning by example

• Reinforcement learning

• Semantic perception

• Communication through language

• Human behavior modeling

• Agile 3-D mobility at operational tempo

• Human-like manipulation

From tool to teammate

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Merging Cognition & Control

From tool to teammate

The unique hybrid architecture combining cognitive upper and geometric

lower layers – bridging the gap between artificial intelligence & control• Introduction of abstractions to facilitate human-

robot communication – behavior specification

based on structured language

• Algorithms to permit semantic labeling of

objects, behaviors and their relationships

• A focus upon learning, to include learning

without reliance on large sets of training data

• A broad description of the environment that

goes beyond placing objects in four-

dimensional space to include concepts such as

object compliance and signature

• Natural modes of communication – voice and

gesture

• Exploration of unconventional mobility modes

• Human-scale manipulation

Coupled with enhancements to facilitate teaming

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Thrust 1 – Op-tempo Maneuvers in Unstructured Environments

Robustness

Op-tempo Collaboration

Complex Environments

Thrust 2 - Human-Robot Execution of Complex Missions

Situational Awareness in Unstructured Environments

Distributed Mission Execution

Trusted Execution of Verified Missions

Thrust 3 – Mobile Manipulation

Complex 3D Environments

RCTA: Key Challenges

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Operational Scenario

Intelligent System Components

Autonomy / Swarms

Network

Experts

Sensors

Knowledge

Bases

Autonomy for Networking : Networking for Autonomy

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Autonomous Networking

Autonomous Networking• Blend networking and autonomy to enhance both and provide

resilient seamless services

• Hybrid multi-radio multi-wavelength PHY• Autonomy as mobile infrastructure • Cognitive, self-healing radio• Seamless embedded PNT• Distributed Beamforming & EW

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Research Topics:

Distributed Intelligence: Establish the theoretical foundations of

multi-faceted distributed networked intelligent systems combining

autonomous agents, sensors, tactical super-computing, knowledge

bases in the tactical cloud, and human experts.

Heterogeneous Group Control: Develop the theory and

algorithms for control of large autonomous teams with varying

levels of heterogeneity and modularity across sensing, computing,

platforms, and degree of autonomy.

Adaptive and Resilient Behaviors: Develop theory and

experimental methods for heterogeneous multi-agent groups to

carry out tasks in the physical world.

Expected Payoff:

• Extended reach, situational awareness, and operational

effectiveness against dynamic threats in contested environments

Distributed and Collaborative Intelligent

Systems and Technology (DCIST)

New Collaborative Research Alliance (CRA) Opportunity

• Distributed and Collaborative Intelligent Systems and Technology (DCIST)

• Program Announcement Feb 2017 - See official announcement for programmatic and submission details

• Will be announced through FedBizOpps

• Opportunities for collaboration with ARL researchers, leveraging ARL facilities, and an on-site presence

Vision:

Develop the underpinning science to extend the reach, situational awareness, and operational effectiveness

of Intelligent System/Soldier teams against dynamic threats in complex and contested environments and

provide technical and operational superiority through fast, intelligent, resilient and collaborative behaviors.

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

Tactical Offset Summary

• Merge cognition & control for distributed intelligent systems

• Fundamental new science of human – autonomy teaming

• Leap ahead in rapid deployment & autonomy projection

• Focus deep learning on Army intelligent system scenarios

• Autonomy for Networking : Networking for Autonomy

Drive new tactical offset strategy

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED.

End

Dr. Brian M. SadlerSenior Research Scientist, Intelligent SystemsArmy Research Laboratorybrian.m.sadler6.civ@mail.mil(o) 301-394-1239