Triumph supports National Center for Collaborative Autonomy at IHMC

Recent military conflicts around the world have underscored the growing importance of autonomous systems, including drones, in modern warfare. In the civilian world, the impact of these systems is equally profound — and is expected to grow with exponential increases in capability greatly impacting future commercial applications.

Controlling and coordinating these unmanned vehicles, maximizing their utility and efficacy in the air, land, sea, underwater, and even in space, will be critical to protecting the nation’s security and economic interests.

A new award secured by the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) has the Institute poised to be the leader of this initiative, creating a center of research excellence in cooperative human-machine teaming, a research area focused on optimizing the ability of these systems to work together with humans.

The National Center for Collaborative Autonomy (NCCA) leverages and expands IHMC’s internationally recognized expertise in drones and autonomous systems, human-machine teaming, communications networking and related disciplines.

An award totaling $6.7 million from the Triumph Gulf Coast Board will establish and support multiple areas of research, add technology-centered jobs to the regional economy, and advance innovation in the region.

Triumph is the nonprofit corporation funded by a legal settlement with energy-giant BP following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Its purpose is to seed projects that will transform and diversify the regional economy.

The NCCA is poised to do just that, says Dr. Morley Stone, IHMC’s Chief Executive Officer.

“The Center for Collaborative Autonomy could have a generational impact not only on the regional economy, but also on military response, disaster response, and much more,” Stone says. “Improving the way humans and machines learn and team together is one of our foundational pillars. No one knows more about this work than the IHMC team. This grant will allow us to elevate the research that we do in order to get the maximum benefit for our national security and first responder communities.”

Researchers Dr. Niranjan Suri, IHMC’s Associate Director, Dr. Matt Johnson, and Dr. Sam Lensgraf will be leading the development of the NCCA.

IHMC research has focused on networking, communications, distributed systems, information management, interoperability, the Internet of Things, and the application of machine learning to all of these domains.

In addition, IHMC research focuses on making human-machine teams more flexible, resilient, and effective. IHMC’s human-machine teaming research focuses on maximizing the observability, directability and predictability dynamic inherent in successful teaming relationships.

The NCCA also creates a unique academic opportunity thanks to IHMC’s partnership with the University of West Florida in its Intelligent Systems and Robotics Ph.D. program. This seamless talent pipeline will benefit the university, IHMC, and the region.

This effort will support the strategic hiring of 12 highly qualified personnel over four years to address key research areas in collaborative autonomy including autonomous marine systems, communications infrastructure, human-machine teaming, and engage industry and academic partners, along with post-graduate and graduate student researchers.

“Triumph Gulf Coast is once again making a significant investment in IHMC and in the future of this region as a center of excellence in science and technology,” Stone says.

IHMC is a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System where researchers pioneer science and technology aimed at leveraging and extending human capabilities. IHMC researchers and staff collaborate extensively with the government, industry and academia to help develop breakthrough technologies. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, IBM, Microsoft, Honda, Boeing, Lockheed, and many others.