Under the competition, DASA sought proposals for novel and innovative technologies, approaches, and enablers for transforming the decision-making, mission planning, and automation for the British armed forces.
The eventual objective of the competition is to leverage a human-machine network that could collaboratively work on military platforms for 2030 and beyond.
Focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), the selected nine projects will support the assessment and demonstration of a variety of human-machine teams and their integration with a testing environment.
Phase 2 of the Intelligent Ship competition will develop AI for broader application across defence platforms, said DASA.
DASA delivery manager Rachel Solomons said: “DASA is focussed on finding innovation to benefit the defence and security of the UK.
“Artificial Intelligence and human-machine teaming are such innovations, and by taking this competition to Phase 2 we hope to help find solutions that could make a real difference to future decision making in defence.”
One of the winning proposals is an intelligent system for vessel power and propulsion machinery control to help the engineering crew in making decisions.
Another winning proposal is an innovative mission AI prototype agent to help in decision making during pre-mission preparation, execution of missions, and post mission analysis.
Dstl project technical authority Julia Tagg said: “The Intelligent Ship project aims to demonstrate ways of bringing together multiple AI applications to make collective decisions, with and without human operator judgement.
“We hope that the use of AI in the future will lead to timely, more informed and trusted decision-making and planning, within complex operating and data environments. With applications for the Royal Navy and more broadly across defence, we are very excited to see what these Phase 2 projects might bring.”
Making the cut for the phase 2 competition are CGI IT UK, Decision Lab, DIEM Analytics, Frazer Nash Consultancy, Montvieux, Nottingham Trent University, Rolls Royce, and SeeByte.
Last year around this time, DASA announced nine projects that won an initial £1m funding for phase 1 of the same competition. The phase 1 winners are engaged in developing technology and solutions for addressing the increasing ‘information overload’ faced by crews as part of DASA’s Intelligent Ship.
