Roke, DSTL working on AI for maritime systems

Roke Manor Research is set to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) software into a maritime combat system demonstrator sponsored by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), it announced on 17 October.

DSTL is working on a project to develop complex threat detection software for the British Royal Navy. Roke's AI situational awareness software, called Startle, is designed to continuously monitor and evaluate potential threats using AI techniques.

The software has been developed to emulate the mammalian conditioned fear response mechanism, and can be used to augment situational awareness of a human operator in complex environments. If integrated into existing warship sensor suites, it offers potential to support personnel by intelligently processing multiple sources of information, whilst cueing systems to assess and confirm potential threats. 

Mike Hook, lead software architect on Startle at Roke, said: 'Traditional methods of processing data can be inefficient so we have looked at the human brain’s tried and tested means of detecting and assessing threats to help us design a better way to do it. 

'The first two phases of the project have proven that we’ve been able to successfully apply these techniques to real data from complex scenarios. The clever part comes in the way these potential threats are detected and the way our software redistributes resources to decide if they are real – all in the blink of an eye.'

In this phase, Roke will integrate Startle into the Open Architecture Combat System to demonstrate the utility of research ideas in a representative combat system in a realistic environment.