Parallax Awarded DARPA Analytic Engine R&D Contract

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Parallax Advanced Research a $4.4 million contract to perform research aimed at developing analytic engines capable of producing machine-generated strategies for warfare at a faster pace than humans. 

According to Van Parunak, senior research scientist at Parallax, his company is enhancing its Social Causality with Agents using Multiple Perspectives simulator to satisfy contract requirements. Parallax described SCAMP as a psychologically and socially realistic simulator that can model how people make decisions.

The award was secured through DARPA’s Strategic Chaos Engine for Planning, Tactics, Experimentation and Resiliency program, Parallax said.

Besides Parallax, the agency also recently awarded BAE Systems a SCEPTER contract valued at $8.3 million. Under the contract, BAE Systems’ FAST Labs will develop, deliver and demonstrate a machine learning-powered autonomy system for accelerating operational planning. According to Marco Pravia, chief scientist at FAST Labs, the SCEPTER system will help produce trusted, resilient operational plans for complex decision spaces. 

SCEPTER consists of two phases. Among the first phase is the development of unscripted goal-oriented agents that can discover relevant and interpretable solutions. Phase two, meanwhile, will be a three-year battle planning program.