BAE awarded DARPA contract for space machine learning

BAE Systems has been awarded a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) phase 2 contract to develop machine learning capabilities to help the US Department of Defense gain better awareness of space scenarios. 

DARPA’s Hallmark Tools, Capabilities, and Evaluation Methodology (Hallmark-TCEM) programme is designed to develop and evaluate tools and capabilities that increase an operator's understanding of space events.

As space assets such as satellites become increasingly important and relied upon by the DoD for communications, surveillance, and security, Hallmark-TCEM will enhance an operator’s ability to select effective courses of action for any given situation.

For the programme, BAE Systems' FAST Labs research and development team will build cognitive-based machine learning algorithms and data models aimed at providing space operators with the ability to identify abnormal activities and predict possible threats. 

The team will build on phase 1 of the programme, and continue to leverage its development of the Multi-INT Analytics for Pattern Learning and Exploitation (MAPLE) technology with a system called MAPLE Automates Joint Indications and Warnings for Cognitive Counter-Space (MAJICS).

‘Our technology builds data models based on normal activity and then ingests large amounts of real-time, streaming data to compare against the normal model and determine if any abnormal activity is occurring or will occur,’ John Hogan, product line director of the sensor processing and exploitation group at BAE Systems, said.

‘By using this technology, we hope to reduce the operator's workload by providing a solution that will automatically predict space events such as launches or satellite movements based on millions of pieces of data, helping them make rapid decisions to avoid any potential threats.’

BAE Systems' research on the Hallmark-TCEM programme adds to the company's machine learning and artificial intelligence segment of its autonomy technology portfolio. 

The capabilities developed under the Hallmark-TCEM effort will be integrated into DARPA's Hallmark Software Testbed (Hallmark-ST) programme. 

Work for the programme will be completed at the company's facilities in Burlington, Massachusetts and Reston, Virginia.