The Department of Defence has signed contracts worth a total of $1.75 million with the University of South Australia and Deakin University for two research projects that will leverage artificial intelligence to transform noisy and dynamic data into knowledge that will give military decision-makers an advantage.
The research initiatives will receive support from the Next Generation Technologies Fund (NGTF) as part of the Defence Artificial Intelligence Research Network (DAIRNet) Phase II call out, according to a media release.
Chief Defence Scientist Professor Tanya Monro AC said the goal of the two projects was to quickly create prototypes that provide defence capabilities.
“Robotics, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence are a group of technologies that are a Defence Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority,” she said.
Monro also noted that the DAIRNet Phase II call out sought creative suggestions for prototypes that will aid in the better decision-making of warfighters and ultimately improve the defence capability.
In order to identify early indicators of infection in a person, the University of South Australia’s research project will create a statistical machine-learning algorithm using data from gadgets like smartwatches.
The early detection of chemical or biological risks to maximize the efficiency of therapies may be one of the future practical applications.
On the other hand, the Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute at Deakin University will use next-generation machine learning in the project to create models that can handle noisy and dynamic data that is multi-source, multi-modal, irregularly timed, and spans a considerable amount of time.
With $1.2 billion in funding through 2030, the NGTF is a cornerstone of the Department of Defence’s integrated innovation system and will be used to invest in its game-changing capabilities.
