Team Oriented Programming for Automated, Adaptive and Collaborative Tactics (TOPACT)

This proposal is for Team Oriented Programming for Automated, Adaptive and Collaborative Tactics (TOPACT). In this project we will design CONOPs and TTPs and develop software that provides novel capabilities to networked, collaborative weapon swarms. TOPACT will allow a swarm to adapt its behavior autonomously to new intelligence, coordinate effectively on priorities and be robust in the face of an intelligent adversary and degraded communications on a fluid battlefield.  The objective is to create an AI–based functional infrastructure that will support the present Air Force Golden Horde program and its future follow-on efforts, as well as other service programs such as NAVAIR Motely Crew. To achieve this objective we propose to develop and demonstrate a prototype TOPACT system around a use case focused on cooperative jamming of opponent RF equipment including communications and radar. The cooperative jamming will be executed by a subset of a larger UAV swarm, following a team-oriented mission plan while still executing swarming behaviors to maintain robustness, flexibility and scalability. TOPACT will build on an extensive technical infrastructure developed by Perceptronics over a number of years, sponsored by several different DoD organizations.  At the technical core our approach is having members of the swarm perform explicit roles within one or more team-oriented plans that the overall swarm might be concurrently executing, while simultaneously performing swarming behavior to maintain safety and robustness.