June 18, 2019 | International, Aerospace
By: Seth J. Frantzman and Kelsey D. Atherton
Rafael Advanced Defense System's Spice bombs now have a new technological breakthrough as the Israeli company enables its Spice 250 with artificial intelligence alongside automatic target recognition to be used with scene-matching technology.
The Spice 250, which can be deployed on quad racks under the wings of warplanes like the F-16, has a 75-kilogram warhead and a maximum range of 100 kilometers with its deployable wings.
Its electro-optic scene-matching technology — which involves uploading terrain data onto the bomb and combining it with real-time electro-optic imagery — allows the weapon to work in GPS-denied environments. And the bomb can use this autonomous capability to navigate and correct its location, according to Gideon Weiss, Rafael's deputy general manager of marketing and business development at the company's air and C4I division.
With its AI and “deep learning” technologies, the weapon has the ability to identity moving ground targets and distinguish them from other objects and terrain. This is based on 3D models uploaded to the bomb as well as algorithms. As the weapon identifies and homes in on its target, such as a convoy of vehicles, it separates the convoy of interest from other vehicles it has “learned” to ignore.
“The deep-learning algorithm is indifferent to the actual data fed to it for modeling targets of interest and embedding their pertaining characteristics into the system," Weiss said. "However, the more the data used for modeling is representative of the target of interest, the more robust the recognition probability will be in real life.”
Rafael has completed the development and testing phase of the Spice 250, including flight tests, which have “proven the robustness of the ATA and ATR, so it is mature for delivery,” Weiss said, using acronyms for automatic target acquisition and recognition.
Asked if the ATR algorithm will select a secondary target if the computer cannot find the initial human-selected target, Weiss said: “This goes into the area of user-defined policies and rules of engagement, and it is up to the users to decide on how to apply the weapon, when and where to use it, and how to define target recognition probabilities and its eventuality.”
Automatically selecting a secondary target may eventually become part of the upgrade profile for the munition, if customers express significant interest in the feature.
With a two-way data link and a video-streaming capability, the bomb can be aborted or told to re-target up until a “few second before the weapon hits its target,” Weiss explained. That two-way data-link, enabled by the weapon's mounting on a Smart Quad Rack, or SQR, will enable future deep learning to be based on data extracted from earlier launches. Data recorded will include either live-streaming video or a burst of still images of the entire homing phase up until impact.
“These are automatically and simultaneously recorded on the SQR — enabling two functions: (a) real-time and post-mission BDI (Bomb Damage Indication); (b) post-mission target data extraction for intel updates, etc.," Weiss said. "The ATR capability, including its deep learning updates, must be more agile than the enemy's ability to conceal and/or change its battlefield footprint, tactics, appearance or anything else which might impede the ATR from accurately recognizing and destroying targets.”
The Spice family of weapons is operational with the Israeli Air Force and international customers.
September 25, 2024 | International, Land
This contract is available to all Department of Defense units and includes spares and repair services.
February 4, 2019 | International, C4ISR
A key ingredient in effective teams – whether athletic, business, or military – is trust, which is based in part on mutual understanding of team members' competence to fulfill assigned roles. When it comes to forming effective teams of humans and autonomous systems, humans need timely and accurate insights about their machine partners' skills, experience, and reliability to trust them in dynamic environments. At present, autonomous systems cannot provide real-time feedback when changing conditions such as weather or lighting cause their competency to fluctuate. The machines' lack of awareness of their own competence and their inability to communicate it to their human partners reduces trust and undermines team effectiveness. To help transform machines from simple tools to trusted partners, DARPA today announced the Competency-Aware Machine Learning (CAML) program. CAML aims to develop machine learning systems that continuously assess their own performance in time-critical, dynamic situations and communicate that information to human team-members in an easily understood format. “If the machine can say, ‘I do well in these conditions, but I don't have a lot of experience in those conditions,' that will allow a better human-machine teaming,” said Jiangying Zhou, a program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “The partner then can make a more informed choice.” That dynamic would support a force-multiplying effect, since the human would know the capabilities of his or her machine partners at all times and could employ them efficiently and effectively. In contrast, Zhou noted the challenge with state-of-the-art autonomous systems, which cannot assess or communicate their competence in rapidly changing situations. “Under what conditions do you let the machine do its job? Under what conditions should you put supervision on it? Which assets, or combination of assets, are best for your task? These are the kinds of questions CAML systems would be able to answer,” she said. Using a simplified example involving autonomous car technology, Zhou described how valuable CAML technology could be to a rider trying to decide which of two self-driving vehicles would be better suited for driving at night in the rain. The first vehicle might communicate that at night in the rain it knows if it is seeing a person or an inanimate object with 90 percent accuracy, and that it has completed the task more than 1,000 times. The second vehicle might communicate that it can distinguish between a person and an inanimate object at night in the rain with 99 percent accuracy, but has performed the task less than 100 times. Equipped with this information, the rider could make an informed decision about which vehicle to use. DARPA has scheduled a pre-recorded webcast CAML Proposers Day for potential proposers on February 20, 2019. Details are available at: https://go.usa.gov/xE9aQ. The CAML program seeks expertise in machine learning, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, knowledge representation and reasoning, autonomous system modeling, human-machine interface, and cognitive computing. To maximize the pool of innovative proposal concepts, DARPA strongly encourages participation by non-traditional proposers, including small businesses, academic and research institutions, and first-time Government contractors. DARPA anticipates posting a CAML Broad Agency Announcement solicitation to the Federal Business Opportunities website in mid-February 2019. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-01-31
October 18, 2018 | International, Aerospace
Agreement positions company for work on next generation composite manufacturing technology DULLES, Va. – Oct. 16, 2018 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) announced today it has finalized a Cooperation and Research Agreement to work closely with Airbus on the Wing of Tomorrow program. The three-year agreement expands the current Northrop Grumman relationship with Airbus and explores complex composite wing stiffener forming automation with out-of-autoclave material systems through an investment in equipment, test articles and engineering support. This relationship positions Northrop Grumman for future potential high-rate production opportunities. “This agreement builds on Northrop Grumman's valuable working relationship with Airbus and its partners. Our work with Airbus is an important component of growth in the commercial aerospace structures business,” said Wendy Williams, vice president and general manager, aerospace structures, Northrop Grumman. “We are excited about the advanced composite manufacturing technology being developed to support the Wing of Tomorrow concept, and our team is eager to continue our long-term relationship with Airbus on their future endeavors.” Northrop Grumman is currently producing composite fuselage stringers and frames for the Airbus A350 XWB -900 and -1000 variants at its state-of-the-art Aircraft Commercial Center of Excellence facility in Clearfield, Utah. The company has successfully delivered more than 200,000 Airbus A350 parts since the inception of the program. Northrop Grumman's proprietary automated stiffener forming process has been instrumental in the development and manufacture of high-rate production composite stringers and frames that are extremely high quality, affordable and dimensionally precise. This technology will be evolved to the new material systems, geometries and processing needs of the future while maintaining the superior benefits of a highly automated production process. The Airbus Wing of Tomorrow program will address future aggressive aircraft production rates and the requirement for wings to be made faster and more affordably. The program will explore the best materials, manufacturing and assembly techniques, as well as new technologies in aerodynamics and wing architecture. New material experimentation represents a major part of the program, and lower-cost composite technologies currently being pursued could enable wing components to be produced with significantly reduced equipment and tooling costs, along with enabling a faster production cycle. Increased use of composite materials also opens up new possibilities in terms of wing configuration and construction. Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, space, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide. Please visit news.northropgrumman.com and follow us on Twitter, @NGCNews, for more information. https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/releases/northrop-grumman-and-airbus-finalize-agreement-on-wing-of-tomorrow-program