Nichols Martin
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency conducted the third field experiment under an effort that aims to implement the use of autonomous swarms in urban operations.
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon BBN provided architectures, interfaces and tools for the development of swarm methods under the OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics, or OFFSET, program, DARPA said Monday.
Autonomous swarms of both ground and aerial vehicles performed an urban raid simulation in the experiment. The two firms served as integrators for the trial, while OFFSET sprinters worked on specific tasks.
Charles River Analytics, Northwestern University and Case Western University served as sprinters to help DARPA achieve interfacing for manned-unmanned teaming.Â
Soar Technology and Carnegie Mellon University also provided input and technology in support of swarm tactics.
The program aims to have a maximum of 250 autonomous units deployed to support small ground units in urban missions. The next experiment is expected to take place in six months.
