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£4m Defence funding to improve autonomy in challenging environments

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is launching a new competition to seek ideas and innovations that could improve autonomous systems across defence. Funding of up to £4 million is available to fund multiple projects over multiple phases.

In society, we are becoming increasingly dependent and trusting of unmanned, autonomous and semi-autonomous systems to operate our machinery, cars and even our home deliveries. Similarly, in defence, autonomous systems are driving a revolutionary change in military operations, transforming the battlespace with improved intelligence and mobility.

Future conflicts and military operations are anticipated to be in ever more challenging environments. Autonomous systems will be required to continue operating effectively and efficiently regardless of the environment. The challenge for autonomy is to mature autonomous systems with the capability to operate on demand, under all conditions that may be encountered. This includes natural conditions such as rugged landscapes, dense vegetation, dynamic wind speeds or high sea states; and manmade conditions such as congested and contested electromagnetic spaces.

All these factors affect the military effectiveness of current autonomous technologies.

We are seeking proposals for novel and innovative technologies to improve the capability of autonomous military systems in such challenging environments.

Full details are available in the competition document.

The competition closes on Thursday 10 October 2019 at midday (BST).

Queries should be sent to accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.