Software-enabled Platforms for Real-time Updates and Collaborative Effects (SPRUCE_

Toyon will research and develop new algorithms and software to support the SEW research initiatives at AFRL/RW.  Our focus will be on the development of “apps” that provide autonomous behaviors to the swarm including decentralized data fusion for developing shared situational awareness and autonomous controls to maneuver the swarm.  Where appropriate, Toyon will leverage existing software and heuristic algorithms to implement the proof-of-concept “apps” – including Toyon’s Decentralize Fusion and Correlation (DFAC) software. Significant focus will be allocated to the use of Reinforcement Learning within a high-fidelity simulated battlefield to train and deploy NCA agent models. Using RL, the agent models – encoded as deep neural networks (DNN) – will learn control policies through experience within the simulated mission. Toyon will leverage current R&D in this area – including SCREEM and MAPL – to implement an agent training infrastructure appropriate for this project.  The infrastructure will combine AFSIM, AACO’s Core RL (CoRL) framework, and HPC resources – both those hosted by Toyon at its Headquarters in Goleta, California, and those hosted by the DoD’s HPC Modernization Program – to train and evaluate agent models. Toyon will configure AFSIM to model one or more missions of interest to the Government. Toyon will then design and develop new RL tasks, as necessary, to train C2 agents within those missions. Toyon will design, develop, demonstrate, and deliver an MLOps infrastructure which graduates proven agent models and packages them into deployable “apps” that are compatible with the Software-Enabled Weapons (SEW) framework being developed by AFRL/RW.  Toyon will also deliver a minimum of two new “apps” that will support wider SEW R&D efforts at AFRL/RW.  Finally, our Phase II effort will conclude with a demonstration of the full RL-training and SEW app deployment pipeline. At a minimum, this pipeline will be demonstrated using Toyon’s Gladiator foundation and the Golden Horde Colosseum (GHC).  However, a stretch goal will be a live flight test using the RW Aviary test facility located in Hangar 421 at Eglin AFB.  Toyon will work with the Government to explore this option and align our work plan toward the live test exercise, if desired.