Autonomy Standards and Ideals with Military Operational Values (ASIMOV)
Abstract
The Autonomy Standards and Ideals with Military Operational Values (ASIMOV) program will develop autonomy benchmarks to objectively and quantitatively measure the ethical readiness of future autonomous systems and the ethical difficulty of proposed use-cases in support of military operational values (e.g., international humanitarian law, rules of engagement, etc.) in increasingly complex and changing scenarios. In order to accelerate the development and eventual use of ethical autonomous systems, an implementable measurement and benchmarking framework of military autonomy must be developed. Based on technologies developed in the Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA) program (budgeted in PE 0602702E, Project TT-04), ASIMOV's benchmark will enable future autonomous systems that undergo the intensive testing to be evaluated and scored with autonomy readiness levels (ARL) much like how technology readiness levels (TRL) and manufacturing readiness levels (MRL) are used to describe the maturity of technology and manufacturing processes, respectively. ASIMOV will decompose the five Department of Defense's Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethical Principles (Responsibility, Equitability, Reliability, Traceability, and Governability) in a structured, observable, and independently verifiable manner to measure the readiness of specific autonomous systems to perform ethically within those scenarios. Technology developed under ASIMOV will be transitioned to the demonstration and operational testing (DT/OT) community, the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), and the Services.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2025
- Source ID
- 7586b151e711f5f0dd3cd0ba0f6a4be0