Boeing, Australia to Collaborate on AI for Military Drones

Boeing is partnering with Australian government research group, Defence Cooperative Research Centre (DCRC), to develop advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to create smart military drones for global forces.

Embedding machine learning techniques on-board will help unmanned systems better understand and react to threat environments.

“Over the next 12 months, Boeing Australia will design and test cognitive AI algorithms to enable sensing under anti-access conditions and to navigate and conduct enhanced tactics in denied environments,” said Dr. Shane Arnott, director of Phantom Works International.

Boeing Australia’s first innovation project with the DCRC will examine an unmanned system’s route planning, location, and identification of objects and the platform’s subsequent behavioural response.

The DCRC for Trusted Autonomous Systems was announced by the Australian Government in 2017 to support the rapid creation and transition of industry-led trustworthy smart-machine technologies through the innovation ecosystem to the Australian Defence Force.

Boeing will work with Australian university partners and Brisbane-based supplier RF Designs to flight-test and evaluate the capability with autonomous high performance jets.