DARPA's OFFSET third swarm sprint focuses on human-swarm teaming
NewsOctober 16, 2018
ARLINGTON, Va. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) officials are soliciting proposals for a third swarm sprint under the OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET)program. The third swarm sprint will focus on human-swarm teaming and swarm tactics.
DARPA’s OFFSET envisions swarms of 250 collaborative autonomous systems providing critical insights to small ground military units in urban areas where vertical structures, tight spaces, and limited sight lines constrain communications and mobility.
Swarm sprints allow for incorporation of emerging technology and new performers throughout the life of the program. Each of five core sprints focuses on one or more of the key OFFSET thrust – or topic – areas: swarm tactics, swarm autonomy, human-swarm teaming, virtual environment, and physical testbed. Each topic emphasizes slightly different perspectives, but ultimately aims to enable breakthroughs in swarm capabilities.
“What makes autonomous swarm research challenging and compelling is the rapid pace at which swarm technologies and associated capabilities are advancing,” says Timothy Chung, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO). “OFFSET is designed around the idea of incorporating core swarm sprints at regular intervals.”
The first of two topic areas covered in the third sprint is human-swarm teaming, which refers to the design, development, and demonstration of novel frameworks to enhance how humans interact with autonomous swarms. This topic area recognizes and seeks to address the complexity of the swarm systems themselves, as well as the cognitive, physical, and contextual needs of human teammates or tacticians when conducting urban operations.
The third swarm sprint also seeks to increase the collection of swarm tactics found in the OFFSET swarm tactics exchange, a repository of tools and tactics – or approaches – sprinters can employ. Selected swarm sprinters will design and implement additional sophisticated swarm tactics employing a heterogeneous swarm of air and ground robots, and addressing the mission context of “conducting an urban raid” within four square city blocks over a mission duration of one-to-two hours.
Swarm sprinters in either topic area, whether for human-swarm teaming or advanced swarm tactics, will integrate their technologies into one or both of the OFFSET swarm systems architectures, and will have the chance to further develop and demonstrate their innovative solutions in relevant field tests to showcase breakthrough swarm capabilities in urban settings.
DARPA also has awarded contracts to the following organizations for the second Swarm Sprint:
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Corenova Technologies, Inc.
- Cornell University
- Heron Systems Inc.
- Michigan Technological University
- Siemens Corporation, Corporate Technology
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- University of North Carolina, Charlotte
This cohort of sprinters for the second swarm will leverage existing technologies or develop new ones leading to enhancements in swarm autonomy, highlighting enriched foundations in swarm primitives and/or swarm algorithms. These contributions to the overarching OFFSET swarm systems architectures will offer additional building blocks for novel capabilities that spotlight the potentially disruptive advantages of autonomous swarms for complex urban operations.
Proposers have the opportunity to propose to one or both swarm sprint topic areas in the third swarm sprint. Directions to submit a proposal to participate in the third core swarm sprint (under Amendment 3), as well as full OFFSET program details, are available on the Federal Business Opportunities website: https://go.usa.gov/xRhPC.
Proposals are due November 13, 2018, at 1 p.m. EST.
