Manufacture of Autonomous Systems at Scale (MASS)
Abstract
The rising use of air, surface, and sub-surface unmanned and autonomous systems requires a paradigm shift in the development, production, and life-cycle management of these systems in order to gain a competitive advantage against adversarial capabilities as well as allow for fielding of significant numbers (1000's to 10,000's) in an increasingly budget-constrained acquisition environment. The growth in rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing technologies presents an opportunity to capitalize on these advances though applied research efforts focused on scale-up both in terms of rapid production of relevant quantities as well as greatly increasing the physical size of platforms produced far beyond what is currently achievable. Manufacturing of Autonomous Systems at Scale (MASS) efforts will utilize wide range of advanced manufacturing methods combined with adaptive digital design processes with "Design for Low-Cost Platform Attriteability" as a major attribute to avoid the platform cost growths normally associated with exquisite systems development. This also represents the ability to rapidly modify platform attributes based on evolving operational needs and quickly insert into build process without costly retooling. Secondary goals focus on increasing commonality of critical components across platforms and design of these in modular fashion in order to manage supply chain vulnerability. Lastly, the project will look at ability to place manufacturing capability as far forward/afloat as possible to reduce the logistics tail and speed delivery of capability at-scale into the fleet. The activity identified in Project Unit 3461 MASS specifically addresses Applied Research in support of the MASS effort.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2024
- Source ID
- 2197fa6fe35518e25a7dcc351e09c71b