DASA and Dstl launch Intelligent Ship - Phase 3
Courtesy DASA
This phase aims to build upon the delivered capabilities from the first two phases of the competition, and seeks proposals that will design, optimise and demonstrate an effective Human-Autonomy Team (HAT) based upon collaborative Intelligent Agents and humans.
Defence wants to understand the design implications, challenges and opportunities of future naval Command and Control (C2) systems that incorporate multiple Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agents. These agents are expected to interact and work together as a Collaborative AI system. Defence also needs to understand how to successfully integrate these collaborative AI systems with Human Operators and decision makers, forming a complex Human-Autonomy Team (HAT).
Developing an understanding of these future systems is expected to lead to more timely and informed decision-making that can be trusted in a complex and contested data environment.
Key dates and funding
Up to £1.7 million funding is available for this Themed Competition. As this is a Phase 3 competition, DASA will aim to fund a single proposal up to the full funding amount.
The deadline to submit a proposal is midday 6th June 2023 (BST).
What innovations are DASA looking for?
This DASA Themed Competition seeks proposals that will design, optimise and demonstrate an effective HAT based upon collaborative Intelligent Agents and humans. The primary aim will be to investigate and develop understanding through the design and evaluation of a collaborative AI based HAT system design for C2. The objective will be to develop requirements and design approaches for future C2 systems.
The competition seeks to fund projects which will address both of the following:
- Explore approaches to, and the benefits and challenges of, a more human centred approach to the design of the collaborative AI based HAT.
- Explore approaches to, and the benefits and challenges of different approaches to system level arbitration in a Collaborative AI-based HAT.
What happened in Phase 1 and 2?
To date there have been two successful phases of the Intelligent Ship competition which delivered a system concept that demonstrated some of the capabilities, challenges and design enablers needed to support a collaborative AI system. Several evaluations of this system with a team of Royal Navy operators enabled initial insights into the design requirements, performance and usability of collaborative AI systems forming a HAT.
Phase 1 (£1 million via DASA) focused on the development of enablers. This included the initial development of a range of innovate component Intelligent agents and the initial development of a sand-pit capability Intelligent Ship Artificial Intelligence Network (ISAIN).
Phase 2 (£2 million via DASA) focused on integration and evaluation. Through this competition, 10 intelligent agents were funded and an integrator selected to manage the development of ISAIN, the integration of the intelligent agents into the final system, and the management of a series of evaluation events.
Webinar
On 15th February 2023, DASA and Dstl hosted a webinar to discuss the competition.
What is covered in the webinar?
- Summary of Intelligent Ship Phase 1 and Phase 2 outputs & key conclusions
- Phase 3 outlines scope, aims and timelines
- Proposed Delivery Model
- Collaboration survey
Collaboration Survey
For phase 3, collaboration between suppliers is encouraged and to support this, a short survey collects details of suppliers who wish to explore collaboration possibilities.
Fill out the collaboration survey here
One-two-one Q&A Sessions
DASA are hosting a series of 15 minute one-two-one teleconference sessions on 18th and 25th April 2023. These sessions provide the opportunity to ask your specific questions. If you would like to participate, please register via the links below. Booking is on a first-come-first-served basis.
To read the full competition document and submit a proposal, click
here
