Soaring Otter   3

Background
The Air Force is increasingly employing the science of autonomy to solve complex problems related to global persistent awareness, resilient information sharing, and rapid decision making. The scope of the SOARING OTTER contract includes advancing, evaluating, and maturing Air Force autonomy capabilities, leveraging the latest advancements in both the fundamental science of autonomy and ML and the most modern computing technologies designed to support them. The contract will focus on six main topic areas: Autonomy Development and Testing, Evaluation of Autonomy Capabilities, Novel Computing Approaches, New Application Spaces, Open System Architectures for Autonomy, and Autonomy Technology Integration and Testing.

Work Details
The work under this contract will involve developing novel approaches to solving autonomy problems using the latest techniques in ML, neural networks, AI, and other fields. It will also include providing neutral 3rd party evaluation of algorithms from Government, Academia, and Industry; assessing compact computing solutions that push processing to the edge for real or near real-time solutions to support the warfighter; evaluating emerging Air Force priorities and user requirements to determine where autonomy can bring the greatest benefit; assessing existing and emerging Open System Architectures (OSAs) as fundamental elements of future autonomous systems; planning and executing paths by which new autonomy technologies can be rapidly integrated into larger systems for lab, SIL, and field/flight testing; and planning and executing technology transition and system transition activities for operational partners.

Period of Performance
63 months (60 months for technical effort and 3 months for final reporting)