Intelligent Autonomous Systems R&D

FAST Labs Autonomy R&D

Intelligent autonomy systems by BAE Systems’ FAST Labs support military personnel in the air, at sea, on the ground, and in space.

Our ahead-of-the-curve Autonomy R&D keeps our customers ahead of their opponents with rapid problem solving and deployment that puts inventive new capabilities in warfighters' hands while others are still making plans.

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.