LSU, Integer Partner to Optimize U.S. Navy, Marine Corps Operations

Three Marine Robotics vehicles September 9, 2024

BATON ROUGE, LA – A team of LSU researchers has been tasked with helping the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps make the transformation to Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), which would allow the two military branches to move beyond traditional reliance on a few large vessels and instead emphasize a distributed network of smaller naval platforms that enhance presence and awareness in vital maritime regions.

The project, titled “Intelligent Data Management for Distributed Naval Platforms,” is funded by a grant of nearly $10 million from the Office of Naval Research and is the product of a collaboration between LSU and Integer Technologies, a science and technology company founded to support U.S. national security customers by equipping them with world-class technology.

The LSU research team is comprised of LSU Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Shuangqing Wei, LSU Mechanical Engineering Professors Corina Barbalata and Marcio de Queiroz, LSU Mathematics Professor Xiaoliang Wan, and LSU Computer Science Associate Professor Jian Zhang. Integer has established an office on the LSU campus so that engineers and scientists from both teams can closely collaborate on this research.

The issue facing the team is that autonomous agents are distributed across a vast battlespace with limited to no communication between them. Each agent is collecting large amounts of battlespace ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) data, some of which could be critical to a mission’s outcome. Currently, there is little if any “sense-making” capability for these autonomous systems to understand what information is critical and what to do about it.

The solution, as proposed by the Integer and LSU research team, is an intelligent data management research program that enables autonomous agents to improve “sense-making” capabilities and understand which pieces of information are critical and what to do about them.

“LSU and Integer teams are jointly developing software platforms and intelligent decision-making frameworks to be used by future unmanned autonomous vehicles,” said Wei, principal investigator on the project. “Such systems will enhance the Navy’s ability to interpret and leverage data in dynamic operational environments. Future naval combat missions will deploy more autonomously-operating vehicles on the surface and underwater. What and how to exchange critical information between these vehicles are the central questions we will address in this project.”

LSU and Integer’s collaboration will leverage modeling techniques to create representations of critical systems onboard naval platforms. These models encompass a wide range of functionalities, including proprioceptive (the sense of self movement, force, or body position) and exteroceptive (stimuli external to the body) sensors; communication modalities; and Hull, Mechanical, and Electrical (HM&E) components. By integrating these models into a unified picture of the battlespace and creating “look-ahead” simulations, it will allow the team to identify critical data in the context of battlespace and mission objectives. Furthermore, the project aims to offer commanders and decision makers unparalleled insight into mission-critical factors, allowing them to optimize resource allocation and prioritize actions in real time.

“We’re excited to partner with the world-class researchers at LSU on this critical technology enabler for our national defense,” said Josh Knight, Ph.D., co-founder and chief operating offer of Integer Technologies. “The capability we are developing is incorporating lessons-learned from the use of drones and counter-drone systems in contemporary conflicts and pushing more awareness and intelligence onto each autonomous vehicle, such that future naval drones can be relied upon to complete missions in environments where regular communications will be difficult or otherwise undesirable.”

Beyond the current phase of the project, Wei said that future plans could involve working with real data in actual testing environments to examine and further develop the algorithms being used in existing simulations. Whatever the future may hold, the goal is ultimately the same for LSU and Integer, ensuring the Navy and Marine Corps have the most intelligent and capable uncrewed and autonomous systems technology to help them in their missions as they keep our country safe.

About Integer

Integer is a science and technology company founded to support U.S. national security customers by equipping them with world-class technology. This is done by providing subject matter expertise, research and development services, and consultation and software products for both crewed and uncrewed vessels. Visit www.integer-tech.com for more information. Follow us on LinkedIn.

###

Contact: Joshua Duplechain
Director of Communications
225-578-5706
josh@lsu.edu