Success in modern warfare requires technologies that use adaptive intelligence processing to help military personnel make better decisions faster and stay ahead of opponents at every stage of mission. That's what our Autonomy R&D teams excel at creating, and it's what our unparalleled autonomous solutions deliver on land, at sea, in the air, in space, and beyond.
BAE Systems' Autonomy R&D teams are recognized thought leaders who have been inventing, evolving, and implementing world class autonomous solutions for over 25 years. Their work includes pioneering data fusion, machine learning, and dynamic planning & control technologies. These innovations give autonomous systems the ability to assess information from multiple sources to develop situational understanding, learn what's new in the operational environment, and act accordingly by making informed decisions optimized for the mission.
Focus areas of Autonomy R&D
A dedicated unit within the FAST Labs™ R&D group, our Autonomy R&D team includes many of the world's leading autonomy professionals, combining science, engineering, and technological expertise to develop cutting edge solutions that help our armed forces do their jobs and protect them in the field. This group includes autonomous teams, coordination, decentralized processing, architectures, validation & verification, trust assurance, and more. We break out our autonomy practice into four distinct, but related areas, including:
Decision-making and mission planning
Successful military engagements need smart, timely decision-making. Some decisions require in-depth consideration, while others must be made in an instant, but every form of decision-making requires accurate data, assessment in accordance with identified criteria, and making choices. Autonomous systems can gather and assess that information faster and often more accurately than humans can, then – at the discretion of military personnel – can also initiate actions central to expediting and executing the mission. This Autonomy includes mission planning and management processes, from multi-day courses of action to microsecond sensor resource optimization to detect, deter, and defeat threats. Our R&D capabilities related to this include:
- Distributed planning and control
- Multi-domain, Multi-vehicle Mission Planning and Mission Management
- Electronic Warfare battle management across platforms
- Sensor resource management
Situational assessment & understanding
In confusing, contested environments, autonomy technologies help warfighters form a coherent picture from disparate and distributed information so they can tell friends from foes, and can separate abnormal patterns of behavior from normal ones. This gives them essential, game changing insights and understanding in real time. These smart, adaptive technologies simultaneously track both moving and stationary objects to produce a comprehensive situational understanding and awareness when and where it counts. Our R&D capabilities related to this include:
- Estimation and tracking
- Hard and soft data fusion
- Complex adaptive systems
- Decision analytics
Artificial intelligence & machine learning
Our advanced autonomy technologies use algorithms, collected data, and adaptive processing to help those using them make reliable, expedited decisions at machine speeds that simply would not be humanly possible otherwise. These smart technologies learn about their current environment, discover new adversary behaviors, and validate their actions. This supplements human limitations in analyzing large, complex data sets and facilitates more accurate decisions than could be accomplished otherwise. Our R&D capabilities related to this include:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Human and machine decision-making collaboration
Technology collaboration
BAE Systems has a long history of collaborating with various government agencies and facilities, independent laboratories and service providers, selected universities and even competitors when the end goal is to develop better, more effective technology solutions. That includes our FAST Labs Autonomy R&D group. If your agency, company, or university is interested in partnering with us to advance autonomy in a new or proposed project, contact us here.
Life at BAE Systems
What is life like working in BAE Systems' Autonomy R&D group? If you value working with several of your field’s most experienced and knowledgeable leaders, it would be hard to imagine you not loving it here. Whether you are an experienced pro yourself or a top college student dreaming of a great start in autonomy, click here to see our current job listings, or contact our Autonomy Coordinator.
Learn more today. See above for our Autonomy R&D datasheet, or contact our autonomy representative to arrange a meeting.
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BAE Systems to develop autonomy-based video game experience for mission planners
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded BAE Systems a $17 million contract to develop autonomy-based video game experience for mission planners. -
BAE Systems to develop autonomous network technology for multi-domain military missions
BAE Systems to develop software that autonomously configures tactical networks for mission-critical communications as part of the Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) program. -
IARPA selects BAE Systems to advance machine learning to assure data security
BAE Systems to develop tools to decipher an ever-growing number of radio frequency (RF) signals in order to quickly and accurately help secure mission-critical information. -
U.S. Army selects BAE Systems to deliver autonomy capabilities for Future Vertical Lift initiative
BAE Systems awarded multiple contracts from the U.S. Army for the Advanced Teaming Demonstration (A-Team) program. -
BAE Systems selected to develop attritable air vehicle systems under the U.S. Air Force Skyborg program
BAE Systems has been awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to develop an attritable air vehicle system for the Skyborg program -
DARPA has selected BAE Systems to advance autonomy software for multi-domain mission planning
BAE Systems Inc. has received a $6.5 million Phase 2 contract from DARPA to further develop software that will enable semi-autonomous, multi-domain mission planning. -
MindfuL™ technology to provide transparency and build user trust in machine learning systems
BAE Systems recently delivered software to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of a contract under the agency’s Competency-Aware Machine Learning (CAML) program. The delivery of the MindfuL™ software is the first milestone in the program to improve the transparency of machine learning systems. -
BAE Systems selected to provide autonomy capabilities for DARPA’s Squad X program
Lockheed Martin has awarded BAE Systems a contract to provide key autonomy and artificial intelligence capabilities for DARPA’s Squad X program. -
BAE Systems wins DARPA contract to develop machine learning analytics as a service for constant global situational awareness
BAE Systems aims to develop machine learning analytics as a service – a first-of-its-kind, cloud-based model for the government – that can leverage commercial and open source data to deliver constant worldwide situational awareness for a diverse range of challenges.
