autonomy for hazardous scene assessment themed competition 22 september 2016

Defence and security accelerator pilot –

autonomy

[email protected]

OFFICIAL © Crown copyright 2016 Dstl

September 2016

mailto:[email protected]

Why an ‘autonomy challenge’?

Robotic and autonomous systems one of the UK ‘eight

great technologies’

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

(BIS) RAS Strategy 2020 identifies 5 key themes

• coordination

• assets

• grand challenges

• clusters

• skills

OFFICIAL

© Crown copyright 2016 Dstl

September 2016

Defence and Security innovation

challenges for autonomy

Three core themes:

• assured autonomous resupply

• autonomy in hazardous scene assessment

• counter-UAS (unmanned air systems)

– to be confirmed


September 2016


September 2016

Public commitments

UK-US public announcement at Farnborough International Airshow

14 July 2016

Public announcements for Innovation Initiative

12 August and 16 September 2016

“The UK and the US are speeding up the impact that robotic and

autonomous systems can have on resupplying their armies by committing

to a joint programme, announced UK Defence Minister Philip Dunne and US

Under Secretary of Defense Frank Kendall today”

“ Today the department will also launch a new competition

with the Home Office to challenge industry to design unmanned

systems – robots and aircraft – that can assess hazardous scenes,

such as chemical attack sites. These collaborative challenges will

inform the development of the Defence and Security Accelerator” ?

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September 2016

Vision: an ambitious 3-5 year framework to address key areas for the

UK Services and the UK Logistics Defence Authority through testing

autonomous systems applications in the field of Defence logistics for

deployed operations.

• autonomous systems employed in the

delivery of materiel to deployed forces

• autonomous technologies employed in

the decision making and command and

control of the delivery assets, supply

chain information management and

intelligent resupply

Assured autonomous resupply

Current agreed UK-US Assured Autonomous Resupply Challenge scope

• the suspected presence of

hazardous materials may

cause significant operational

impact

• rapidly establishing ground

truth enables decision making

• shared concern across

government

• what part can autonomous

systems play?


September 2016

Autonomous Hazardous Scene Assessment

(AHSA)

? ?

[email protected]

OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

27/09/2016


Autonomy – scene assessment

22 September 2016

What effect?

• detect contamination

• identify contaminant

• determine cordons

• locate mass decontamination resources

• monitor spread of contaminant at mass

decontamination

• hazard monitoring

9

Context - historical

10

And more

11

An autonomous solution?

12

What we would like

13

What we have got

14

What we can do

15

• Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) Advisors arrive within 45 minutes at Home Office model response sites

• ready for deployment in 30 minutes

• collection and analysis of samples in 30 minutes

• inform decision making

What we can do

16

• Police Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) teams arrive within 90 minutes

• ready for deployment in 15 minutes

• real time detection and classification immediately

• inform decision making

The Challenge

Beat that!

17

Autonomy in hazardous scene

assessment

A jointly-funded themed competition run by

CDE on behalf of the Ministry of Defence

and the Home Office

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Welcome

• aims

• approach

• outcomes

• exploitation

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CBRN event model Normality

Incident

IOR

Transition

SOR

Prepare

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• Incident occurs

• Alarm is raised

• Initial responders sent

Walk-through

TASKS UNDERTAKEN

• Make visual assessment

• Set initial cordon

• Relay information to

commander

• Specialists requested

IOR - DOES NOT EMPLOY

SPECIFIC EQUIPMENT

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Walk-through continued

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• Specialists arrive

• Scene declared safe

• Prepare for approach

• Make initial approach

TASKS UNDERTAKEN

• Prepare sensors and samplers

• Establish safe route of entry

• Capture imagery and sensor readings

• Download and review data, begin analysis

• Relay information to commanders

• Provide advice on interpretation SOR – ALSO REQUIRES RESCUE AND

DECONTAMINATION

Aim of this competition

To investigate whether

autonomous systems could

improve scene assessment

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Our competition

• use a two-phase

approach

• explore with

experiments and trials

• focus on 4 key tasks

9/27/2016

SURVEY

REFINE

MAP

SAMPLE

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Phase 1

• 6 month projects

• ~£1 million

• we want to fund a number of proposals at phase 1


September 2016

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Phase 2

• 12 month projects

• ~£2 million

• we expect to fund a smaller number of collaborative

projects


September 2016

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We want to

• establish an evidence base

• better appreciate current “art of possible”

• understand what characteristics are required

• inform potential requirements

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Initial responders

make assessment,

and link-up to HQ

– cordon shifted,

release point

observed

µUAV

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Higher fidelity

sensor refines

original data set

Additional

sensors monitor

cordon

Specialists on site Initial response

enhanced

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In this example, a UAV / UGV pair

establish safe routes and then map

hazards on scene

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In this example, a UAV captures an air sample

downwind of the release, whilst a UGV

recovers a bulk sample close to the release

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A lot to ask?

• these tasks are complex and interdependent

• we don’t expect you to address every task

• we expect some tasks to be harder than others

• benefits manifest in different ways…

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How much autonomy?

• not replacing human

• augmenting their performance

• teaming with machines

• freeing the specialist

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Materials of concern

• payloads include sensors and samplers

• use simulants for this work

• propose the most appropriate for your technology

• guidance is available in competition document

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Dispose or decontaminate?

• recover vs destroy

• in-scene

• cross-boundary

9/27/2016

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Exploitation

• military and civilian, UK and overseas

• systems approach lends itself to other use-cases

• boundaries only in place to help manage scope

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Our hopes

• your focus will remain firmly on autonomy, and on

systems engineering

• our understanding of human-machine teaming for

scene assessment will improve

• we see real progress towards machines supporting a

human-led response

• we identify disruptive options

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How will the competition

work?

Innovation Network event

22 September 2016

Emma Howe

CDE Themed Competition

Manager

Intellectual property

Online bid submission

Assessors

Technical partners

www.gov.uk/dstl/cde

Challenge tasks:

Survey

Refine

Map

Sample


assessment

What we want


assessment

What we don’t want

Phase 1

Up to £1 million

Typically £40-80,000

Research complete by 30 June 2017

Proof of concept

Phase 2 proposal

Phase 2

Up to £2 million available

Longer research projects –

collaborations encouraged

Competition dates

Webinar:

3 October 2016

Technical queries

dstlautonomyinnovationchallenge@dstl.

gov.uk



Competition closes

November

10

10 November 2016 at 5pm

5

Questions

autonomy for hazardous scene assessment themed competition 22 september 2016

Technology