Trusted Scalable Search with Expendable Drones
DefendTex-led with RMIT University, the University of Melbourne, and the Department of Defence Science and Technology (DST).
Approved by the board in August 2018. The project is set to place the team in a position to compete in the US on the DARPA Subterranean Challenge.
Distributed aUtonomous Spectrum managemenT (DUST)
Led by Consunet Pty Ltd with RMIT University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and DST. Approved by the board in November 2018. DUST aims to research, develop and demonstrate near real-time autonomous spectrum management to deliver orders of magnitude increase in agility and efficiency cost savings for Australian Defence and commerce.
Justified Autonomous Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Effects
Led by Skyborne Technologies and Cyborg Dynamics Engineering with the University of Queensland (UQ) and DST. Approved by the board in February 2019. The project aims to research and develop autonomous live reconnaissance effects assessment using AI and machine vision for day and night UAS operations over land. The system aims to advise operators on the legal and ethical aspects of fire support missions in near-real time.
Cognitive Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance
Led by Boeing Australia and approved by the TASDCRC Board in March 2019, this project will examine the embedding of machine learning techniques on board an uninhabited system to better understand and react to the environment. The project will design and test cognitive artificial intelligence algorithms to enable sensing under anti-access conditions and to navigate and conduct advanced behaviours in contested environments.
Trusted Autonomous Ground Vehicles for Electronic Warfare
BAE Systems, working with researchers at the Universities of Melbourne and Adelaide, will exploit advanced AI techniques to deliver a next-level trusted autonomous platform capable of robust and persistent operation in complex, contested land environments.
Mine Counter-Measures in a Day
Thales is partnering with DST, Academia (Flinders University, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney and the Western Sydney University) and Australian SMEs (INENI Realtime, Mission Systems) on a research and development study for new autonomous technologies and training solution to revolutionise mine clearance in littoral operations. The five-year, A$15 million innovation project aims to develop technologies that enable a fundamental change in littoral operations, transforming this phase of the Mine Counter-Measure (MCM) mission. The ‘MCM in a Day’ project will design, develop, test and evaluate various teams of micro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) swarms and Autonomous Surface/Subsurface Vessels (ASVs) to deliver autonomous mine clearance research and technology that support and assist amphibious zone preparation. This new autonomous approach has the potential to support a significant operational step-change to the Royal Australian Navy by removing ADF members from harm’s way and accelerating the speed of mission execution.
Firefly
RMIT (Research) is leading a project for a self-organising, low-cost, high-altitude balloon constellation (pseudo-satellite) for persistent surveillance and communications. The lead is supported by a range of partners including LUXAerobot, the ADF – Defence AI Centre, SmartSat CRC and others joining soon. This project aims to deliver an initial prototype stratospheric self-organising balloon constellation for persistent ISR and communications, specifically to test key control algorithms and sensing capabilities for a full-scale project. It is a proof of concept for low-cost constellation to support persistent ISR and comms in military operations over land and sea; replace high-cost, low persistence space-based solutions; deployable from anywhere. The initial concept will consider bushfire monitoring as an application.
