HR001117S0011-06.pdf

BAA# HR001117S0011-06 OFFENSIVE SWARM-ENABLED TACTICS (OFFSET)

Broad Agency Announcement OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) Swarm Sprint 5

Tactical Technology Office (TTO)

HR001117S0011-06

September 26, 2019

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Tactical Technology Office 675 North Randolph Street Arlington, VA 22203-2114

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PART I: OVERVIEW INFORMATION

PART II: FULL TEXT OF ANNOUNCEMENT

I. Funding Opportunity Description A. Program Vision B. Program Description C. OFFSET Swarm Sprints Structure D. Swarm Sprint Description

II. Award Information A. General Award Information B. Fundamental Research

III. Eligibility Information A. Eligible Applicants B. Organizational Conflicts of Interest C. Cost Sharing/Matching

IV. Application and Submission Information A. Address to Request Application Package B. Content and Form of Application Submission C. Funding Restrictions D. Other Submission Requirements

V. Application Review Information A. Evaluation Criteria B. Review of Proposals

VI. Award Administration Information A. Selection Notices and Notifications B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements C. Reporting D. Electronic Systems

VII. Agency Contacts

VIII. Other Information A. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) B. Associate Contractor Agreement (ACA) Clause C. List of Attachments

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PART I: OVERVIEW INFORMATION

Federal Agency Name – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Tactical Technology Office (TTO)

Funding Opportunity Title – OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET)

Announcement Type – Amendment

Funding Opportunity Number – HR001117S0011-06

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers (CFDA) – 12.910 Research and Technology Development

Dates o Posting Date: September 26, 2019 o Proposal Due: November 12, 2019 13:00 (Eastern)

**Calls for Swarm Sprinter proposals will be issued periodically (6-month intervals are anticipated) as amendments to this BAA at future dates yet to be determined.

These calls may be issued at any time up to one year from the posting date.

Concise description of the funding opportunity – The goal of OFFSET Swarm Sprints is to create focused breakthroughs in swarm technologies to be integrated into the OFFSET Swarm Systems Architecture. The specific topics of interest for this amendment are (1) the prototyping and integration of innovative component technologies into physical swarm testbeds to create new swarm-focused capabilities; and (2) the innovation and integration of novel swarm tactics relevant to OFFSET Vignette 3.

Anticipated individual awards – DARPA intends to award up to fifteen Swarm Sprinter awards in this Swarm Sprint call. No individual award is anticipated to be above $450K (including all options proposed).

Types of instruments that may be awarded – Procurement contract, cooperative agreement, or Other Transaction.

Agency contact o Points of Contact

The BAA Coordinator for this effort can be reached at:

OFFSET@darpa.mil mailto:OFFSET@darpa.mil

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PART II: FULL TEXT OF ANNOUNCEMENT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

This publication constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016 and 2 CFR § 200.203. Any resultant award negotiations will follow all pertinent law and regulation, and any negotiations and/or awards for procurement contracts will use procedures under FAR 15.4, Contract Pricing, as specified in the

BAA.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative proposals to expand the operational effectiveness of combat forces utilizing unmanned swarm systems.

Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

The following information is for those wishing to respond to this BAA.

A. Program Vision

This section is unchanged by this amendment; please refer to initial posting of BAA#

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B. Program Description This section is unchanged by this amendment; please refer to initial posting of BAA#

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B.1. Core Elements of the OFFSET Swarm System This section is unchanged by this amendment; please refer to initial posting of BAA#

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B.2. Defining the Swarm Systems Architecture This section is unchanged by this amendment; please refer to initial posting of BAA#

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B.3. OFFSET Swarm Ecosystem This section is unchanged by this amendment; please refer to initial posting of BAA#

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B.3.a. Swarm Systems Integrators The initial release of this BAA sought well-balanced and expert teams, referred to as Swarm Systems Integrators (SSIs), capable of holistically designing, developing, and deploying the envisioned OFFSET swarm system architecture, as detailed above, to include:

an extensible game-based architecture to enable design and integration of swarm tactics, a community-fostering forum (e.g., swarm tactics exchange) for curation of swarm tactics and an automated workflow for their assessment, https://www.fbo.gov/index.php?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=01149a8a61316a0f94d92088157b3c89&_cview=0

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immersive interactive modalities for intuitive and robust teams of humans and swarm systems, aggressive experimentation and systems integration efforts for realizing swarm capabilities.

B.3.b. Swarm Sprinters

This BAA amendment seeks proposals for OFFSET Swarm Sprinters. Swarm Sprinters may comprise third-party developers and/or users. These Swarm Sprinters must be able to design swarm tactics and/or requisite supporting elements as well as develop and integrate them according to the specifications set forth by the architectures (as developed by the Swarm Systems Integrators).

The Government would like to engage with a wider developer and user audience for this capability;

therefore, OFFSET anticipates soliciting proposals for Swarm Sprinters over multiple intervals to conduct “sprints” or rapid technology development efforts to generate novel swarm tactics and to accelerate additional enabling technologies while ensuring operational relevance of the capability-based experiments.

Candidate sprint topics may include more narrowly defined thrusts (such as, for example, the design of swarm tactics relevant to searching a building for hidden caches) or broad emphasis areas (such as integration of novel maneuver specifications for heterogeneous swarm systems). Possible sprints may also emphasize desired improvements to the overall architecture, including enabling toolkits and/or interface enhancements; payload development studies; swarm deployment technologies; and/or other focused investigations based on continued monitoring of advancing technologies relevant to the OFFSET program interests.

Proposals for Swarm Sprinters are expected to be solicited through multiple BAA amendments at periodic (approximately six-month) intervals. The development sprints comprise focused short-term efforts, with key objectives to deliver frequent product increments and integrate them with the open-source architectures provided by the Swarm Systems Integrators. Upon award, Swarm Sprinters are expected to work with the Swarm Systems Integrator(s) to further enhance the swarm systems architecture and its demonstrable capabilities. The Swarm Systems Integrator(s) are also expected to work collaboratively and openly with the Swarm Sprinters to enable smooth integration and encourage user feedback. Communication and sharing of material between Swarm Systems Integrators and Swarm Sprinters are planned to occur through a Government-Sponsored Enterprise System, Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise (DI2E). Access to this site requires at least one member of the team to be a U.S. citizen. To promote this open and transparent teamwork OFFSET will use Associate Contractor Agreements (see Section VIII.B). In addition, Swarm Systems Integrator(s), their subcontractor, and any subsidiaries are prohibited from proposing to or being awarded as a Swarm Sprinter.

B.3.c. OFFSET Government Team This section is unchanged by this amendment; please refer to initial posting of BAA#

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B.4. OFFSET Metrics This section is unchanged by this amendment; please refer to initial posting of BAA#

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C. OFFSET Swarm Sprints Structure

The overall OFFSET program is structured as a 42-month effort. The first phase extends for 18 months, with the subsequent two phases conducted over 12 months each. The program’s agile development cycle is embodied in a Swarm Systems Integrator-Sprinter ecosystem that focuses development and integration efforts toward six biannual capability-based experiments. Regular field exercises provide opportunities to test and evaluate integration of technologies and provide more direct engagement between warfighters and technologists.

The OFFSET Swarm Sprints are intended to provide technology injects and enhancements to the swarm systems architectures and their demonstrable capabilities. Such injects provide means to:

respond to the evolving needs of the program, leverage emerging technologies as they become available, and pursue opportunities for technology transitions.

To accomplish this objective, the Government anticipates issuing multiple calls for Swarm Sprints over the 42-month duration of the OFFSET program. The duration of each Swarm Sprint is generally expected to be six months, with an additional three-month option period to facilitate integration activities. The initiation and execution of these Swarm Sprints are anticipated to align with the respective capability-based experiments, as dictated by the Swarm Sprint Topics. This will ensure close interaction with the Swarm Systems Integrators and facilitate the demonstration of the proposed component and integrated technologies.

These Swarm Sprints are organized into five thrust areas or high-level research areas of interest to OFFSET, to include Swarm Tactics; Swarm Autonomy; Human-Swarm Teaming; Virtual Environment; and Physical Testbed. Table 1 provides a description of each of these thrust areas.

Table 1: Descriptions of Swarm Sprint Thrust Areas

Thrust Area Description

Swarm Tactics Design, development, assessment, and integration of swarm tactics aligned with OFFSET mission objectives and vignettes

Swarm Autonomy

Development of systems enablers for enhanced swarm autonomy, including both hardware and software along with associated tactics, primitives, and algorithms

Human-Swarm Teaming

Development, enhancement, and integration of novel human interface technologies, interaction modalities, and swarm grammar frameworks

Virtual Environment

Design, integration, and assessment of synthetic entities within the virtual game-based environment that enhance the platforms, sensors, networking, adversary, environmental, and other component elements

Physical Testbed

Design and integration of physically implementable technologies for augmenting physical testbed entities, to include additional platforms, sensors, infrastructure, computation, and experimental design

The Swarm Sprints are categorized further into Core Sprints and Ad Hoc Sprints, the former relating to those Swarm Sprints anticipated to occur at regular six-month intervals in each of the

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thrust areas, and the latter allowing for instantiating “on-demand” swarm interest topics aligned with a specified thrust area.

Figure 1: Notional overall Swarm Sprint schedule. BAA Amendments announcing Swarm Sprints are anticipated to be released at approximate six-month intervals. Core Sprint timelines are subject to change.

Swarm Sprints in the five previously mentioned thrust areas will provide critical enhancements to the overall OFFSET program. Swarm Sprint performers in both Core and Ad Hoc Sprint activities are likely to be motivated by a number of incentivizing elements of the OFFSET program structure. Given that the outcomes of each Swarm Sprint will offer novel features and/or new capabilities for one or more of the Swarm Systems Integrators’ respective architectures, these integrators are inclined to adopt and showcase the most compelling and innovative Swarm Sprinter-developed contributions as part of their integration efforts. Further, the Swarm Sprinters may directly help inform and shape the evolution of the swarm technologies of interest to OFFSET, both through their close interactions and feedback with the Swarm Systems Integrator teams and also via their active contribution of feature requests, bug reports, and updates to the OFFSET code and knowledge base.

D. Swarm Sprint Description

This BAA amendment solicits proposals for a Core Sprint in Physical Testbed Enhancement (Section D.1), and also a third Core Sprint in Swarm Tactics (Section D.2). No Ad Hoc Swarm Sprints are being announced in this amendment. Proposers may respond to more than one Swarm Sprint topic area; however, a separate, standalone proposal is required for each Swarm Sprint topic area.

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D.1. Core Sprint | Enhancements and Enablers for Swarm Physical Testbeds

D.1.a. Swarm Sprint Description

i. Physical Testbed Enhancement Description

OFFSET aims to accelerate swarm system development through the tight integration of virtual environments with physical swarm platforms and architectures to foster the creation and discovery of innovative swarm tactics. This Swarm Sprint focuses on enhancements to the physical testbed, currently comprising commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) air and ground platforms provided by the Swarm Systems Integrators. This Swarm Sprint explicitly seeks to capitalize on the many compelling component technologies relevant to, e.g., consumer and commercial robots, advances in integrated sensors and mechanism design and prototyping, and increasingly distributed deployment and employment of such autonomous systems.

Accordingly, by leveraging novel approaches in rapid prototyping, the miniaturization of hardware, and improved manufacturing techniques, OFFSET envisions these component technologies, upon further integration into physical testbeds for swarm platforms, will provide new opportunities and additional insights into previously unrealized swarm tactics.

This Swarm Sprint is focused on discovering and developing interesting augmentation to the OFFSET physical testbed, whether aimed towards:

Sprint At-A-Glance

Name: Enhancements and Enablers for Swarm Physical Testbeds

Thrust Area: Physical Testbed

Purpose: Prototype and integrate innovative component technologies into physical testbeds for swarm systems to create new swarm-focused capabilities.

Figure 2: Novel enhancements to OFFSET swarm testbeds incorporating innovative component technologies in real-world settings may offer new swarm capabilities, such as for swarm perception, networking, logistics, and/or other swarm systems enablers.

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- Individual agent platforms (air and/or ground), but which manifest new swarm capabilities, and/or

- Enabling or enhancing capabilities and support for end-to-end swarm operations.

Key research questions to be addressed by innovative responses to this Swarm Sprint BAA are:

1. What novel technologies exist or can be rapidly developed to realize new modes of operations for swarm systems employment, so as to inform and create innovative and disruptive swarm tactics?

2. How can platform systems-level design–with considerations for, e.g., size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C); communications budget; and systems integration modularity–facilitate efficient creation and implementation of novel swarm capabilities?

The scope of this Swarm Sprint is to prototype and integrate component technology that can reveal and unlock previously undiscovered potential for new swarm capabilities. The component technology is expected to be sufficiently mature, and available to package and scale for modular integration into swarm platforms and/or infrastructure. OFFSET is not interested in pure hardware development only for the sole purpose of maturation in absence of relevance to swarms; proposals must show a solid technical approach, as well as quantitative data, to support and measure impact of the proposed contributions to swarm-centered operations.

The Swarm Sprinter is asked to prototype, build, scale, and demonstrate component technologies, integrate into OFFSET swarm platforms or near-equivalent surrogates, and to design swarm tactics to realize the benefits of the aforementioned technologies.

ii. Operational Context Description

To envision an OFFSET-empowered future operational backdrop, consider the scenario where the swarm systems form the “tactical swarm vanguard,” which serves the role of an advance party ahead of the main operating force (e.g., an infantry company or platoon). In this context of “recce” or “armed recon,” the swarm vanguard conducts surveillance of the area of operations, provides tactical situational awareness, prepares the battlespace, and/or initiates relevant activities to support the main unit’s mission objectives. The main force elements may advance to augment the swarm’s present activities, offering occasions for combined actions involving both human and autonomous swarm forces, as well as enabling the swarm to continue pressing forward as appropriate or necessitated by the mission.

Referencing Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 12-10B.1, an offensive urban operation can be divided into a series of four phases: reconnoiter the objective; isolate the objective; secure a foothold; and seize the objective, which can be described as:

• Reconnoiter the Objective: Gathering of intelligence such as avenues of approach, supply routes, ingress and egress points, infrastructure and utilities, locations of enemy combatants, and other information that may not be apparent in existing databases or maps;

• Isolate the Objective: Denying the enemy the ability to maneuver or reinforce by impeding the flow of manpower, supplies, weapons, and communications;

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• Secure a Foothold: Providing the attacking force with a position from which they can continue the assault through the objective area;

• Seize the Objective: Pushing forces to clear or control the objective area, including consolidation of the objective area and reorganization for future tasking.

For the purposes of this Swarm Sprint, DARPA is interested in concepts and technologies relevant to swarm operations conducted in any one or more of these mission phases. As such, Swarm Sprint proposals should clearly reference the specific mission contexts and operational challenges that the proposed physical testbed enhancements address, with discussion of appropriate metrics for assessing the envisioned operational impact.

D.1.b. Technical Description

The OFFSET swarm systems testbeds, under continuous development and advancement by the Swarm Systems Integrator teams, provide an array of diverse, robotic platforms and configurations for the rapid development and testing of swarm tactics and associated concepts of operations to enhance company-level urban operations. The goal of this Swarm Sprint is to accelerate the integration of hardware components and enhancements to create compelling new swarm capabilities with clear and quantifiable impact at the swarm level.

Physical testbeds, even with the use of only surrogate COTS platforms, can elucidate key systems design considerations and provide insights into the design of novel swarm tactics. In particular, the limitations and constraints of the physical platforms and real-world environments can reveal new approaches to not only enrich existing swarm tactics, but also inspire new swarm tactics which mitigate or even take advantage of the physical world. The task of developing platform-agnostic swarm capabilities in real-world settings must further recognize the additional hurdles imposed by the increased need for streamlined modularity, interoperability, and robustness, especially when faced with the double-edged nature of rapid product development iterations, i.e., the benefit of new features and constant improvements, alongside the associated penalty of quickly obsolescent hardware and/or functionality.

As such, Swarm Sprinters are expected to offer compelling contributions that address and overcome these challenges and are suitable and/or compatible with Swarm Systems Integrator platforms or near-equivalent surrogates. Proposers should clearly articulate how they intend to convincingly demonstrate their technologies and propose a detailed and specific plan to scale to swarms of relevance to OFFSET’s Vignette 3. Potential Swarm Sprinters are encouraged to reach out to the Swarm Systems Integrator teams to learn about their respective platforms and infrastructure to distinguish the proposer’s potential contributions and/or accentuate their own innovations within the OFFSET program.

Strong proposals should provide a technical description of the proposed component technology and a systems-level integration approach; prior experimental results and/or preliminary swarm data are encouraged as a means to demonstrate feasibility, if not scalability, of the proposed technology.

In addition, strong proposals should also provide details of (or evidence of active development towards) an existing prototype, as well as the ability to showcase a rich history of

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rapid prototyping experience. The Swarm Sprint is intentionally fast-paced in its schedule for development and demonstration; therefore, an aggressive hardware production, testing, and delivery plan/schedule is necessary for success.

Physical Technologies for Autonomous Swarms

OFFSET seeks to explore the relevance and richness of physical testbed enhancements, with emphasis on how the proposed enhancements inform the design and employment of tactics at the swarm level. Particular attention should be paid to how integration of these component enhancements can achieve the scales and speeds of interest to the OFFSET program. Specifically, proposals should address (1) how to incorporate these technologies into large numbers (i.e., scores or even hundreds) of diverse platforms, each likely at different stages of their product development lifecycles, and (2) how to sustain the aggressive pace of swarm systems development and field testing with minimal disruption or downtime for the proposed hardware upgrades and/or retrofits, especially as new platforms are continually introduced to the OFFSET physical testbed.

Proposals may consider innovative physical enhancements to individual platforms or entire swarm fleets and/or their operations. For proposed component technologies which are designed to markedly enhance individual agent capabilities (e.g., improved positioning, advanced sensing, extended endurance), rigorous technical details must be provided to show how such enhancements lead to substantive and quantifiable breakthroughs in swarm performance. Examples may include (but are not limited to) concepts relating to:

Swarm Sensors: Integration of low-cost, low-SWaP, add-on sensors or integrated autonomy/sensor payloads with increased edge processing. Examples include: miniaturized standoff imaging sensors for multi-view scene reconstruction; microphone, speaker, or other acoustic sensor arrays for sound-based localization; or embedded sensor/computing packages for high-speed data analytics via a mobile sensor swarm.

Swarm Fielding Technologies: The large number of assets in the swarm requires novel logistical solutions to efficiently maintain, transport, stage, and/or recover the fleet.

Examples include: automated fast power transfer to allow for automated swarm recharging;

methods for field repair and/or replenishment, e.g., of deployable sensor/comms nodes; or mobile host vehicle designs for compact transport and automated deployment of large numbers of swarm platforms. Designs should enhance the portability and usability by, e.g., ground unit personnel in urban environments.

Swarm Communication Technologies: Communication technologies that can deal with difficult urban environments, be resilient to multi-path and/or jamming effects, or offer alternatives to radio frequency transmissions. Examples include: real-time material characterization for propagation modeling; collaborative optimization of full-spectrum usage; or use of LED signaling or motion-based cues for interactions with human operators.

Novel, Transformable, or Modular Swarm Platforms: Novel platforms that can tackle the unique challenges of an urban environment through innovative design, dynamic reconfiguration, and/or composition of multiple platforms. Examples could include:

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quieting or signature-reducing shrouds; UGVs that can transition from wheeled to legged locomotion; UAVs that can contract or change shape to fit into tight spaces; or composable platforms which can create new functionality, e.g., distributed lift capability, landing/charging platform construction.

Swarm Manipulation Mechanisms: Peripherals that provide air or ground platforms the ability to interact with the environment or urban terrain features through manipulation and/or other end effectors. Examples include: landing skids, hooks, or claws to allow UAVs to perch on walls, lines, or ledges; robotic arms or actuated joints for object grasping or manipulation, e.g., latches, doorknobs; or payload capture and/or release mechanisms, e.g., for repositioning of emplaced communications or sensor nodes.

Proposals should include detailed plans for integration into the Swarm Systems Integrator teams’ swarm platforms, as well as identify development of swarm tactics and concept of operations (CONOPS) showcasing the swarm capabilities enabled by the platform enhancements. The Government is not interested in physical enhancements to single agents that do not take advantage of the multi-agent features of the swarm. The Government is also not interested in minor platform enhancements resulting in only marginal improvements in individual platform attributes, e.g., endurance or transit speed.

Assessing Physical Testbed-Enabled Swarm Tactics

Proposals should describe the new swarm tactics and swarm capabilities that the enhancement technology will enable, and should define and quantify the systems engineering trade-offs that the proposed technology will have on swarm hardware development. Discussion of such impacts in terms of durability, power consumption, communications requirements, etc. is highly encouraged, if applicable. Proposals should provide measures of effectiveness (including threshold/objective values) that can be used to continuously assess and validate the proposer’s development progress towards achieving the anticipated swarm systems performance improvements.

It is strongly encouraged to leverage simulation, as a precursor to physical testbed-wide integration, to showcase the proposed technology’s potential and to more richly convey new concepts or modes of operations enabled by novel swarm tactic employment. Significant preference is given for use of OFFSET-developed virtual environments, so as to accelerate proposers’ development efforts by leveraging the substantial investments in these OFFSET simulation frameworks, as well as to encourage earlier integration of the proposed contributions in the Swarm Systems Integrators’ respective architectures. Proposed efforts should thus articulate relevant tasks to develop and provide associated simulation assets (i.e., models and code) for the proposed technology in the formats used by the Swarm Systems Integrators’ virtual environments.

Swarm Systems Physical Testbed Integration Activities

All proposals must include a thorough integration plan (i.e., tasks and schedule) detailing how the proposed technology or technologies will be integrated with the physical swarm platforms of one or both of the Swarm Systems Integrators’ testbeds. These plans should address the minimum system requirements of the proposed technology on the swarm platforms, including not only size, 11BAA# HR001117S0011-06 OFFENSIVE SWARM-ENABLED TACTICS (OFFSET) weight, and power budgets but also software, computation, and network considerations. Proposals that demonstrate detailed familiarity with the specific platform resources available in one or both of the OFFSET swarm testbeds are highly encouraged. Strong proposals should further identify the integration risks imposed by use of these available resources and must robustly address the intended risk mitigation activities to fully demonstrate viability of the proposed integration plan.

Proposals that plan for early hardware and software integration and field testing, in conjunction with a partner Swarm Systems Integrator, with explicit description of any integration events or activities intended to be conducted jointly and/or on-site, are strongly encouraged.

Due to the short timeline of the Swarm Sprint effort, proposals that require significantly long procurement or fabrication times are discouraged. Proposed enhancements should make use of technologies that are currently available or can be quickly prototyped at the quantities of interest and within the timeframes of this sprint.

Proposals should include plans for use of existing, procurement of, and/or borrowing of identical or near-equivalent surrogate platforms, i.e., those which closely mirror physical, functional, and/or dynamical attributes of the SSI testbeds’ platforms. Swarm Sprinters may potentially engage with Swarm Systems Integrators for requests for loaner hardware; however, only those requests representing sufficiently mature integration efforts with acceptable risk to the Swarm Systems Integrators’ development and testing efforts are likely to be considered.

Strong proposals should articulate what defines a “minimum viable product” of the proposed physical testbed swarm enhancement, along with a schedule for delivery of this minimum viable product and/or subsequent iterations. Proposals should clearly list what metrics are used to assess the minimum viability of (at least) the first prototype to be delivered according to the aforementioned schedule.

D.1.c. Programmatic Description

This Swarm Sprint is envisioned as a six-month base effort for the development of enhancements to the physical testbed and integration with one or both of the Swarm Systems Integrators’ architectures. Testing, simulation, surrogate testing (including any joint efforts with the SSIs) should also be included in the base effort. Upon completing the six-month base period, a three-month option period may be exercised to further integrate promising and/or validated physical enhancements into the broader OFFSET Vignette 3 field experiment(s).

For planning purposes, proposers should anticipate that preliminary results from field tests in OFFSET-relevant settings (e.g., via joint integration events with SSIs at interim field tests) conducted during the base period may be used to help inform the Government’s decision to exercise the option period. Further, to participate in the official OFFSET field experiment(s), the Swarm Sprinter will be required to construct and deliver relevant safety, field operations, and scenario test execution plans to the Government in advance of the OFFSET field experiments for review and acceptance.

Physical enhancements of interest to DARPA for integration will be selected based on their demonstrated performance in virtual and/or physical contexts in one or more of the Swarm Systems Architectures, their operational relevance to Vignette 3, and the expected level of effort

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to facilitate preparation, deployment, and demonstration at OFFSET field experiments.

D.1.d. Deliverables for this Swarm Sprint

It is anticipated that deliverables for this Swarm Sprint will consist of the following at a minimum:

Deliverable Frequency Format Description

Integration Plan One (1) month after contract award

Contractor format

Detail how the Swarm Sprint efforts will develop within the context of one or both Swarm Systems Integrators’ architectures and interfaces. This document should reflect firm technical understanding, tasks, and schedule of integration activities, including engagement with Swarm Integrators.

Progress Report Monthly

Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft

Excel

Provide a summary of results and technical accomplishments, planned actions for the next reporting period, graphical representations of work being completed, and all relevant financial information, including updates to financial spend plan (i.e., by task and by month), current and cumulative expenditures, open commitments, and explanation of deltas between planned and actual costs/plans.

Swarm Testbed Enhancement Prototype(s) Design Files

Every one (1) month after contract award

3D CAD files (e.g., .stl, .step, .iges), Microsoft

Excel

Provide design files for prototype hardware components. Relevant files should include individual parts, and total assembly of the technology enhancement. Also provide a detailed Bill of Materials, detailing raw materials, components, parts, and assemblies, as well as the quantity of materials needed to fabricate the prototype.

Prototype Integration and

Testing Software

Every two (2) months after contract award

Contractor format

Provide relevant software (source code), including hardware drivers, controller code, prototype test example code, and test data analysis scripts. The source code and supporting library submissions should include clear documentation, be well commented, and follow programming best practices such that others experienced in the field can readily use and interpret the functionality of the code.

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Swarm Testbed Enhancement

Demonstration Videos

As required MP4, MPG, AVI, MOV

Simulation- or physical systems-based video(s) highlighting demonstration of the developed prototype, integrated solutions, and tests conducted in field settings. The video(s) should include descriptive text annotations and/or narration to provide relevant context.

Field Experimentation Readiness Data and Documents

As required Contractor format

Provide relevant data and documents to include: preliminary results from interim field testing; Safety Plan; Field Operations Guide; Scenario Test Plan; and/or other supporting documentation in support of field test readiness level assessments

Technical Data Package

15 days prior to contract end

Contractor format

Provide supporting and generated technical data, to include: simulation elements, e.g., 3D graphics and models; generated and/or captured videos; benchmark sensor datasets; and simulation validation analysis and results.

Final Report 15 days prior to contract end

Microsoft Word

Provide a detailed description of the developed technologies and impact on demonstrated and potential swarm capabilities. The report should also provide a detailed quantitative analysis of relevant metrics, to include, e.g., overall swarm performance, ease of integration, and extensibility of the developed technologies.

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D.2. Core Sprint | Swarm Tactics for Vignette 3

D.2.a. Swarm Sprint Description

i. Sprint Overview

A key component of the OFFSET program is the generation of an extensive playbook of swarm tactics that disruptively create new opportunities for future swarm systems in urban operations.

Swarm Sprinters will be leveraging Swarm Systems Integrator-developed hardware/software architectures and game-based environments that offer both a physical and a virtual world in which relevant operational scenarios, such as urban operations, can be extensively explored and expanded. OFFSET aims to generate and assess 100+ swarm tactics that enable a heterogeneous swarm to achieve the desired objective capabilities described in Section I.B.1.c (found in the initial posting of BAA# HR001117S0011) and summarized in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Objective capabilities of interest for surrogate aerial and ground autonomous swarm systems

Operational Context Vignette 1 Vignette 2 Vignette 3

Representative Mission

Isolate an urban objective

Conduct an urban raid

Seize key urban terrain

Mission Duration 15-30 minutes 1-2 hours 4-6 hours Area of

Operations approx. two square city blocks approx. four square city blocks approx. eight square city blocks Swarm Size 50 100 250

Sprint At-A-Glance

Name: Swarm Tactics for Vignette 3

Thrust Area: Operational Swarm Tactics

Purpose: Design and implement one or more swarm tactics of operational relevance for a heterogeneous swarm seizing key urban terrain

Figure 3: Design, development, and demonstration of innovative and operationally relevant swarm tactics inform and enhance the OFFSET Swarm Tactics Exchanges

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ii. Vignette 3 Decomposition

The focus of this Core Swarm Sprint is the generation of swarm tactics for Vignette 3 in which a heterogeneous swarm of 250 agents is employed to seize key urban terrain within an area of eight square city blocks over a mission duration of 4-6 hours. Given the varying terrains of urbanized areas, the mission battlespace could include high rises, industrial/commercial buildings, or residential sprawl. For this Swarm Sprint effort, the outdoor environment is assumed to consist of buildings that are 3-10 stories high with streets that are 10-25 meters wide and relatively unconstrained (e.g., no complex overhangs or power lines). The indoor environments are expected to be relatively unconstrained (e.g., open doors), but mildly cluttered (some obstacles, but navigable paths). All friendly forces can be assumed to be known and/or easily distinguishable.

The environment will have a mixture of neutral and opponent forces which can be difficult to differentiate.

Referencing MCWP 12-10B.1, an offensive urban operation can be divided into a series of four phases: reconnoiter the objective; isolate the objective; secure a foothold; and seize the objective.

The scope of Vignette 1 covered the first two phases, and Vignette 2 and 3 extends to the latter two phases, which can be described as:

Reconnoiter the Objective: Gathering of intelligence such as avenues of approach, supply routes, ingress and egress points, infrastructure and utilities, locations of enemy combatants, and other information that may not be apparent in existing databases or maps;

Isolate the Objective: Denying the enemy the ability to maneuver or reinforce by impeding the flow of manpower, supplies, weapons, and communications;

Secure a Foothold: Providing the attacking force with a position from which they can continue the assault through the objective area;

Seize the Objective: Pushing forces to clear or control the objective area, including consolidation of the objective area and reorganization for future tasking.

For illustrative purposes, consider the following narrative scenario of a representative mission that spans the OFFSET vignettes:

A rifle company is tasked with taking and holding a block of structures in a built-up urban area. They must isolate, attack, and hold a series of buildings as part of a coordinated battalion-level effort to take the city. Using intelligence, the company commander prioritizes the target buildings and assigns platoons to each urban objective.

Each platoon, deploying from their assembly area, must maneuver to the objective area, conduct reconnaissance, and secure a perimeter to interdict enemy manpower, supplies, and communications. The company and attached elements provide support for each platoon action, including direct or indirect fires.

Individual squads from the platoons must seize each building and conduct search for enemy combatants, improvised explosives devices, and other hazards while attempting to minimize the risks to fellow warfighters and non-combatants.

(Vignette 3’s primary focus) http://www.marines.mil/News/Publications/MCPEL/Electronic-Library-Display/Article/900535/mcrp-12-10b1-formerly-mcwp-3-353/

16BAA# HR001117S0011-06 OFFENSIVE SWARM-ENABLED TACTICS (OFFSET)

Once the urban objectives have been secured the company must prepare for counter offensives by establishing security and communications, clearing fields of fire, selecting fighting positions, and establishing routes between positions.

Relevant to the above scenario, examples of operationally relevant tactics for Vignette 3 may include (but are not limited to):

D.2.b. Technical Description

Referencing the OFFSET Swarm Tactics framework described in Section I.A (found in the initial posting of BAA# HR001117S0011), the central focus of OFFSET is the generation of swarm tactics, which may comprise one or more swarm primitives, which themselves may further comprise one or more swarm algorithms.

In response to this Core Swarm Sprint, proposed swarm tactics should specifically address the needs and scales of the “Seize Key Urban Terrain” mission, and highlight how the disaggregated and heterogeneous capabilities distributed among the swarm can explicitly exploit or mitigate the urban characteristics of challenging verticality, restricted movement, and limited visibility. Such proposed contributions of a Swarm Sprinter could reflect the development of:

A single swarm tactic with a fixed set of swarm primitives but multiple swarm algorithm implementations;

A set of similar swarm tactics that uses numerous common swarm primitives and/or swarm algorithms;

Multiple dissimilar tactics that address a variety of mission objectives and use numerous common swarm primitives and/or swarm algorithms.

The Swarm Sprinter development effort should focus on novel swarm tactics that achieve high-level operational objectives rather than the underlying primitives or algorithms (e.g., collision-avoidance, image processing). However, proposals may consider and leverage novel primitives or algorithms if they are essential to the proposed swarm tactics. Proposals are encouraged to leverage existing and/or open-source algorithms and libraries. Parametric variation at the primitive or algorithm levels is not of interest for OFFSET (e.g., via manual tuning of gains or parameters with

Identify ingress and egress points to an area of operation

Identify, localize, and track opposing force personnel

Identify and defend against possible attack vectors

Employ military deception with decoys or feints

Provide persistent surveillance over an area of operations

Maintain connectivity for friendly mobile forces

Maintain sensor network with automated resource management

Localize origins of enemy fire

Provide overwatch and blockades for routes into the area of operations

Search for and disseminate high value intel

Locate and clear non-combatants from objectives

Locate and target opponent assets for company fires

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a given algorithm to modulate or optimize performance).

Swarm Sprinter proposals should include a plan to rigorously evaluate the performance of each swarm tactic against the stated mission objectives through the extensive use of one or both of the OFFSET-developed game-based environments. This assessment should be performed across a diverse mission parameter space, with rationale for specific factor ranges provided using rigorous statistical analysis methods (e.g., Monte Carlo simulations). Analysis scripts, output data, and detailed results should be provided as a deliverable to DARPA. Swarm Sprinters should also provide OFFSET simulation-based or physical demo videos that clearly demonstrate the functionality of each swarm tactic, including any user inputs and relevant unique variants of the given swarm tactic. The quality and utility of these artifacts are expected to aid in DARPA’s decisions (e.g., exercising options) to pursue additional integration and demonstration of the Swarm Sprinter’s results into an OFFSET test setting.

Swarm Systems Architecture(s) Integration

OFFSET is broadly interested in enhancements to one or both of the current Swarm Systems Integrator-developed architectures through the introduction of operationally relevant and innovative swarm tactics for autonomous swarms in urban operations. Proposals offering to develop and integrate their interaction and/or interface technologies in both the virtual environment and physical testbed are strongly preferred, with particular interest in those proposals holistically leveraging both to accelerate efforts towards implementation and demonstration in live OFFSET capabilities-based experimentation event(s).

The Swarm Systems Integrators’ architectures offer extensible and open interfaces, such as the Robot Operating System (ROS) and use of open-source game development environments (i.e., Unreal Engine and Unity3D), to facilitate integration and interoperability across multiple Swarm Systems Integrators and Swarm Sprinters. Swarm Sprinters are highly encouraged to make use of the Swarm Integrator Portals (see more details below) to acquire more specific details about each Swarm Systems Integrator’s software and hardware interfaces. Swarm Sprinters are encouraged to consider development of their proposed innovations in both Swarm Systems Integrator architectures, if feasible. However, proposals focusing efforts on a single architecture are acceptable and should specifically highlight which distinguishing features between the architectures inspire or require preferential development.

Proposals for this Swarm Sprint should primarily develop swarm tactics that address the stated mission objectives of Vignette 3. Swarm tactics developed for this Swarm Sprint should be reasonably feasible to integrate into a swarm comprising small air and ground vehicles using mostly COTS and low SWaP components. The fixed-wing and multirotor airframes are in the Group 1 (9 kg) category, while the ground vehicles weigh less than 50 kg. The swarm tactics and associated algorithms should be reasonably feasible to execute using common low-cost embedded computers (e.g., ODroid XU4, Jetson TX1/TX2), COTS sensors (e.g., cameras), and low-SWaP communication solutions (e.g., Wi-Fi networking). Proposals for technology that require resources beyond these limitations are acceptable but should then include appropriate justifications and actual performance specifications, as well as should propose relevant contexts or actual experiments that would demonstrate the benefit of their technology for swarms. Replicating and validating the capability in simulations to show how the proposed technology could be deployed once the SWaP requirements are met is also acceptable.

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Swarm Integrator Portals are public websites developed and maintained by the respective Swarm Systems Integrators. These online portals provide up-to-date information on currently available swarm systems technologies, including specifications of platform hardware components, software application programming interfaces (APIs), and simulation environment usage documentation.

The Swarm Integrator Portals also provide community features that allow the broader swarm research and development community to interact with the Swarm Systems Integrator teams.

Swarm Sprinters are encouraged to engage with the Swarm Systems Integrator teams to facilitate their technology integration plans. Successful Swarm Sprinters will maintain frequent and active contact with the Swarm Systems Integrator teams during their sprint duration to ensure their contributions integrate well into the selected OFFSET swarm architecture(s). Details for the Swarm Systems Integrators and links to the Swarm Integrator Portals can be found on the DARPA OFFSET landing page at https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/offensive-swarm-enabled-tactics.

D.2.c. Programmatic Description

This Swarm Sprint is envisioned as a six-month base effort for swarm tactics development and integration with one or both of the Swarm Systems Integrators’ architectures. Upon completing the six-month base period, a three-month option period may be exercised to integrate promising and/or validated swarm tactics into the live OFFSET Vignette 3 field experiments. Integration for the field events requires testing and assessment of the developed swarm tactics on real-world systems and environments, as well as informing the development of fiducials or other test elements to facilitate integration with the field experiment test scenario design.

Swarm tactics of interest to DARPA for integration will be selected based on their demonstrated performance in virtual and/or physical contexts in one or more of the Swarm Systems Architectures, their operational relevance to Vignette 3, and the expected level of effort to facilitate preparation, deployment, and demonstration at OFFSET field experiments.

D.2.d. Deliverables for this Swarm Sprint

It is anticipated that deliverables for this Swarm Sprint will consist of the following at a minimum:

Deliverable Frequency Format Description The source code and supporting library

Swarm Tactics Code

Every two

(2) months after contract award

Contractor format submissions should include clear documentation, be well commented, and follow programming best practices such that others experienced in the field can readily use and interpret the functionality of the code. Submissions should also include swarm tactics analysis scripts.

Simulation- or physical systems-based video(s) for each swarm tactic should be

Swarm…