What's next for the Pentagon after the Replicator programme?
Although the Replicator initiative has made several accomplishments, there are still multiple gaps to plug across the US Department of Defense (DoD) and its services.
Integer Technologies is demonstrating digital twins for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs): one onboard the UUV and the other 'offboard' at the operations centre. (Image: Integer Technologies)
The at-sea testing is part of its SBIR Phase 2 Award, Defining and Leveraging Digital Twins in Autonomous Undersea Operations, with DARPA.
Integer, along with its subcontractors at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Rite-Solutions, have been investigating the implementation of digital twins for UUV missions. The team integrated the digital twin architecture, software, and communication systems on a REMUS 100 vehicle, which were validated during at-sea tests.
The SBIR Phase 2 programme aims to define and demonstrate digital twin use cases for individual UUVs as well as multi-UUV missions with the goal of helping operators overcome undersea communication challenges and UUV mission interruptions.
The research programme included developing and performing in-water testing on a split onboard/offboard digital twin prototype architecture. This architecture enables the prediction of mission success likelihood and provides alternative achievable missions in real time to the operational commander based on environmental and UUV subsystem past, present and forecast states.
Although the Replicator initiative has made several accomplishments, there are still multiple gaps to plug across the US Department of Defense (DoD) and its services.
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High-performance maritime industry player Kraken Technology Group, based in the UK, has used the SOF Week conference in Tampa, Florida this week to debut its K3 Scout uncrewed surface vessel (USV) to the North American market.
Red Cat and Palladyne AI recently conducted a cross-platform collaborative flight involving three diverse heterogeneous drones.