Charles River Analytics Secures Navy Contract to Streamline Integration of Autonomous Systems

The U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research has awarded Charles River Analytics a multiyear contract to develop the Hierarchical Optimized Planning with Heterogeneous Autonomous Network of Tactics tool.

HIEROPHANT is designed to streamline the integration of autonomous systems into existing military command-and-control structures, Charles River Analytics said.

According to Dr. James Niehaus, principal scientist at Charles River Analytics, autonomous systems require new ways of thinking for the artificial intelligence-powered systems to fit existing protocols and adapt to dynamic battlefield conditions.

Updating digital models of the real-world operational environment in real time is another key hurdle that scientists seek to overcome with HIEROPHANT, said Jeff Druce, senior scientist and technical lead.

To solve the said challenges, HIEROPHANT features a collaborative autonomy framework for reconfigurable C2 adaptation, the Scruff probabilistic modeling framework for inference in uncertain environments and a hierarchical predictive coding approach for dynamic mission information updates.

Niehaus also said that the technology holds promise in other applications, such as emergency search-and-rescue operations, where managing multiple autonomous units is crucial.