Researchers, roboticists, and technical experts have recently deployed a large number of autonomous air and ground vehicles in the final field experiment (FX-6) of the DARPA Offensive Cluster Activation Tactics (OFFSET) program at the Cassidy Joint Weapon Training Facility (CACTF) To test mission capability) at Fort Campbell, Tennessee. Since the project was launched in 2017, OFFSET has carried out six field experiments, and the complexity and difficulty of the goal has become more and more difficult.

The plan envisages that future small infantry units will use large unmanned aerial and/or ground robot teams to complete various tasks in complex urban environments. OFFSET pays special attention to the progress of collaborative group autonomy and human group collaboration ability. The goal is to develop a set of "group tactics" that can be used to implement the group commander's intentions using algorithms that the autonomous system can understand.

Two Swarm system integrators-Northrop Grumman Mission Systems and Raytheon BBN Technologies-are tasked with designing, developing and deploying an open architecture for Swarm operations in physical and virtual environments. The cluster system consists of a scalable game-based architecture that supports the design and integration of cluster strategies, an immersive interface for collaboration between human teams and the cluster system, and hundreds of aerial and ground robots to verify new functions Physical testing platform.

The test bed includes commercial off-the-shelf small unmanned systems, including backpack-sized rover and multi-rotor and fixed-wing aircraft. These systems or group agents are designated by the group commander to perform group tactics to complete the FX-6 mission scenario. Swarm advancements shown on FX-6 include:

DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO) OFFSET project manager Timothy Chung said: "In the past four years, in addition to group capabilities, OFFSET has also cultivated a community." "We proved on the scene that these group capabilities are rapidly approaching future operations. The usability and the lessons learned from OFFSET will definitely help the future group’s progress."

In addition to technology development, system integrators are also responsible for creating strategic exchanges to promote community interaction. The OFFSET community includes the NIWC Pacific experimental team and countless swarm sprinters who focus on specific thrust areas to encourage rapid innovation and continuous integration of the latest technology. OFFSET swarm sprints has six themes: swarm strategy, swarm autonomy, swarm team, virtual environment, artificial intelligence application and physical test platform.

Three Swarm sprinters participated in FX-6 and demonstrated their integration with the OFFSET ecosystem:

Previous OFFSET field experiments were conducted at the New York Fire Department Training Department in Randall Island, New York; the US Army Roberts Camp in Paso Robles, California; and the Selby Joint Weapons Training Facility in Fort Benning, Georgia; Joint Weapons Training Facility at the Joint Force Training Center at Camp Shelby, Mississippi; and Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), Washington.

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