- DASA has launched Intelligent Ship - Phase 3: Optimising for
the human in a Human Autonomy Team (HAT)
- Funded by the Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Dstl)
- Up to £1.7 million in funding available for proposals that
will design, optimise and demonstrate an effective Human-Autonomy
Team (HAT) based upon collaborative Intelligent Agents and humans
The Defence and Security
Accelerator (DASA), in partnership with the Defence Science Technology
Laboratory (Dstl), is pleased to launch Intelligent Ship: Phase
3. 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 6 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.
Do you have a disruptive idea or concept? Read the full competition
document and submit a proposalWhat 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 15 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, we encourage collaboration between suppliers and to
support this, we have a short survey to collect details of
suppliers who wish to explore collaboration possibilities.
Fill out the collaboration survey here
1-2-1 Q&A Sessions
We are hosting a series of 15 minute 1-2-1 teleconference
sessions on 18 and 25 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.
18 April 2023 1-2-1 Sessions: Book Here25
April 2023 1-2-1 Sessions: Book Here
