Long-term
military objectives that are driving development
of technology in this area are :
high mission benefit,
which for information gathering includes
discrimination between objects of interest
and potential interference
potential for different mission needs (e.g. to be an information network node)
improved endurance
moderately high survivability (e.g. suitably
low probability of detection in line with the
application)
safe operation (in particular when operating
in conjunction with manned vehicles)
reduced operator workload and training needs
(e.g. ease of deployment, operation and recovery)
reduced need for mission-control based communications
/ improved management of communications (e.g.
in reduced bandwidth)
low total system whole life costs and ease of upgrade (e.g. technology insertion,
robustness to component / sub-system obsolescence, high fuel efficiency)
The DTC has developed a set of 'capability
challenges' describing situations where the use of
autonomous systems might enable or improve a military
task currently not possible or currently carried out
by less effective means. They are intended :
To guide existing DTC researchers
in considering possible application areas for
their research.
As an extra consideration for
those making proposals for new DTC research. In
this context, please note that, whilst it may be
useful if a proposal is explicitly linked to specific
capability challenge(s), this will not necessarily
guarantee success; the proposal will usually also
need to address specific technology gaps as defined
in the calls for proposals published from time
to time on this website.
Click
on the link in the table below to download the latest
version of these challenges.
