DASA awards contracts to deliver innovation for autonomous vehicles

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has awarded contracts to accelerate innovation in autonomous vehicles to enable them to operate in harsh conditions.

In this connection, the agency has given 21 contracts worth a total £2.1m to small and medium-sized enterprises and innovators for working on next generation autonomy systems.

The contract winners include Animal Dynamics, Autonomous Devices, Plextek Service, Imperial College London, University of Dundee, and others.

On behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the agency launched the £4m Autonomy in a Dynamic World competition in 2019.

Through the competition, DASA sought proposals for innovative solutions and novel techniques to enhance the way autonomous vehicles work in challenging conditions. These include dense vegetation, rugged landscapes, varying wind speeds and sea states, and also man-made conditions like congested and contested electromagnetic spaces.

DASA’s competition was also seeking solutions to the human-autonomy teaming (HAT) problem, apart from the effective integration of humans, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics into military systems.

Under the Autonomy in a Dynamic World competition, the selected projects over multiple phases get access to the funding, with up to £2m available in phase 1.

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The contracts given by DASA are for a duration of six months with the winners likely to get additional funding for further phases.

Phase 1 of the competition judged the feasibility, impact, and military application of the innovation for possible further development in phase 2.

DASA delivery manager Laurence Bickerton said: “DASA is pleased to be working with Dstl and some of the best and brightest minds in industry to provide a step change in the capability of unmanned autonomous military systems.

“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.”