L3Harris Technologies has unveiled a new software solution known as AMORPHOUS, designed to manage thousands of drones through a single user interface.
This innovative platform aims to enhance operational control for the US military and its allies, allowing them to coordinate a diverse range of uncrewed vehicles and systems, regardless of the manufacturer.
AMORPHOUS, the Autonomous Multi-domain Operations Resiliency Platform for Heterogeneous Unmanned Swarms, features a user-friendly command-and-control system.
This setup is intended to provide military operators the versatility to carry out complex missions across various domains.
Control thousands of drones
The software promises to deliver collaborative operations on a larger scale, giving military personnel an edge in tactical scenarios.
“Incorporating autonomy into military operations can significantly enhance effectiveness,” said Jon Rambeau, President of Integrated Mission Systems at L3Harris.
“AMORPHOUS is structured to support multiple missions and integrate various uncrewed systems rapidly across a wide area of operations.”
He also noted the importance of partnerships with both traditional and venture-backed companies in advancing defense technology more swiftly and economically.
Currently, L3Harris is working on prototypes of the AMORPHOUS technology under contracts with the US Army and the Defense Innovation Unit.
Early testing has demonstrated the system’s ability to effectively manage multiple assets from various vehicle types operating across various environments.
One of the key features of AMORPHOUS is its support for decentralized decision-making, enabling individual uncrewed platforms to execute tasks autonomously and make real-time decisions within the operational network.
Swarm development
The development of AMORPHOUS is in line with the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) drone swarm warfare to manage thousands of payloads together.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently initiated the OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program that envisions future small-unit infantry forces using swarms comprising upwards of 250 small unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) or small unmanned ground systems (UGSs) to accomplish diverse missions in complex urban environments.
By leveraging and combining emerging technologies in swarm autonomy and human-swarm teaming, the program seeks to enable rapid development and deployment of breakthrough capabilities.
OFFSET aims to provide the tools to quickly generate swarm tactics, evaluate those swarm tactics for effectiveness, and integrate the best ones into field operations.
To accomplish these goals, OFFSET will develop an active swarm tactics development ecosystem and support open systems architecture.
This includes the development of an advanced human-swarm interface to enable users to monitor and direct potentially hundreds of unmanned platforms simultaneously in real-time.
The program intends to leverage rapidly emerging immersive and intuitive interactive technologies (e.g., augmented and virtual reality, voice-, gesture-, and touch-based) to create a novel command interface with immersive situational awareness and decision presentation capabilities.
The interface would also incorporate a swarm interaction grammar, enabling the “freestyle” design of swarm tactics that allow dynamic action and reaction based on real-time conditions in the field.
The development of AMORPHOUS marks a significant step in integrating uncrewed systems into military strategy, such as the DARPA’s OFFSET.
