Tactical Behaviors for Autonomous Maneuver

UPDATE 5 APRIL 2024: The proposal submission date has been updated to 24 April 2024. The FOA has been amended to reflect this submission date and include a Question and Answer document based on questions received from interested applicants. Other than the updated proposal submission date in the FOA, the actual FOA Amendment has not been changed. However, the answers provided in the Q&A document are considered part of the FOA Amendment.

**CYCLE 2 UPDATE 20 MARCH 2024 - THE OPPORTUNITY WEBINAR FOR CYCLE 2 WILL BE HELD ONLINE VIA MS TEAMS AT 1500 EDT ON 22 MARCH 2024 AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:

https://dod.teams.microsoft.us/l/meetup-join/19%3adod%3ameeting_5fa41fe6fa874484b473d8a6ba7921c6%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22fae6d70f-954b-4811-92b6-0530d6f84c43%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e9f6fc39-8f22-44e5-8bd0-64f0cde32305%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d

UPDATE 14 MARCH 2024 - CYCLE 2 HAS BEEN POSTED TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT. PLEASE REVIEW THE UPDATED ANNOUNCEMENT IN FULL FOR SUBMISSION TIME, UPDATED TOPIC, AND FUNDING AMOUNT AND SCHEDULE CHANGES FROM CYCLE 1

TACTICAL BEHAVIORS FOR AUTONOMOUS MANEUVER COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM (TBAM-CRP)

Future Army forces will be called upon to operate and maneuver in multi-domain

operations (MDO), against a modern and capable peer adversary. The battlefield of the future

may impose additional constraints on maneuver forces such as disruption in communication as

well as positioning services. To field a highly capable fighting force in this future battlefield,

novel tactics and doctrines leveraging nascent technologies in robotics and autonomous systems

(RAS) will need to be developed. Teams of RAS will serve an increasingly critical role in the

future force to deliver situational awareness, defend key locations or positions, or take point in

dynamic and hazardous situations. Resilience to disruptions, failures, or unexpected scenarios, is

a key quality for teams of RAS to operate alongside other future Army forces. The US Army

Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is

focused on developing fundamental understanding and informing the art-of-the-possible for

warfighter concepts through research to greatly improve the scope of mission capabilities of

teams of RAS, develop robust and resilient approaches to plan under extreme conditions of

uncertainty, to learn coordinated strategies for groups of agents to achieve a common objective,

all within a complex maneuver environment including adversaries. The Tactical Behaviors for

Autonomous Maneuver Collaborative Research Program (TBAM-CRP) is focused on developing

and experimentally evaluating coordinated and individual behaviors for small groups of

autonomous agents to learn doctrinal as well as novel tactics for maneuvering in military relevant

environments. The TBAM-CRP will leverage developments in other internal and extramural

programs as well as identify new research directions to find novel solutions to these maneuver

problems in analogical simulations representing complex realistic terrain.

The Tactical Behaviors for Autonomous Maneuver Collaborative Research Program (TBAM-CRP) will

consist of a series of sprint efforts executed with annual program reviews. Each topic will be focused on

addressing a different set of scientific areas which will support the research aims of an associated ARL

researcher from a related internal essential research program (ERP) or mission-funded program.

The TBAM-CRP has been developed in coordination with other related ARL-funded collaborative efforts

(see descriptions of ARL collaborative alliances at https://www.arl.army.mil/business/collaborativealliances/)

and shares a common vision of highly collaborative academia-industry-government

partnerships; however, it will be executed with a program model adapted from the Scalable, Adaptive,

and Resilient Autonomy (SARA), which established a new paradigm for collaborative research. Some

key properties of this new approach are described below:

• TBAM-CRP sprint topics will be offered on a two-year cycle. Proposals will be solicited for a

possible two-year period structured as a first-year pilot followed by a second-year option where

the option may be awarded based upon progress assessed at an annual review. The FOA will be

amended annually to identify a specific problem statement and scope for that specific cycle. The

topics for each cycle will be chosen to address the long-term program goal.

• Five new topics (Cycles 1-5) are expected in FY22, 24, 26, 28, 30. Each topic will be carefully

chosen based on the previous accomplishments in the prior cycle(s), the development of new

technologies and capabilities in the broader research and development communities, and the

Army’s evolving needs for future capabilities.

• For each topic, funding will be provided to those Recipients selected under a cooperative

agreement (CA).

• Enhanced Research Program funding from ARL or Other Government Agencies (OGAs) may

become available during a cycle which provides a mechanism for growth and enhancement within

the TBAM-CRP. A proposal should not include any discussion of the Enhanced Research

Program. Recipients receiving a CA will be notified and provided details if the opportunity for

Enhanced Research Program funding becomes available during their award period of

performance.

• There is no limitation on the place of performance, although on-site collaboration at ARL

facilities and with ARL researchers as well as with other Recipients are encouraged. Research

outcomes in this program must, at the very least, be demonstrated in sophisticated simulations of

relevant environments. Together with ARL collaborators, these results may be adapted for higher

TRL experimentation on surrogate platforms at ARL test facilities such as the Robotics Research

Collaboration Campus (R2C2) at Graces Quarters, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

• Recipients will be furnished with access to the ARL Autonomy Stack software suite as well as all

relevant simulation tools and multi-agent learning support.

• Recipients will be provided with information about the current state of the Autonomous Systems

Enterprise (ASE) with an overview of developments in the associated collaborative research

alliances including Distributed and Collaborative Intelligent Systems and Technology (DCIST),

Scalable, Adaptive, and Resilient Autonomy (SARA), as well as internal ARL essential research

programs including the AI for Maneuver and Mobility (AIMM), Emerging Overmatch

Technologies (EOT), and Versatile Tactical Power and Propulsion (VICTOR). Capabilities

demonstrated in simulation should reflect significant appropriate developments. This midpoint

review is expected to take place as a mini symposium where Recipients can share results with

one another along with the ARL community to foster further collaboration.

• At the end of the second year, a capstone demonstration will be executed by those Recipients

receiving an option to their award in a set of simulated relevant environments, either those

environment scenarios provided by the Government and other program performers, or optionally

of a specific environment developed by the Recipient to exhibit their developed capability. Any

system level capability demonstration that can be made with the internal ARL collaborator or

description of capability development and program contribution can also be made at this time.

These system demonstrations are expected to coincide to foster further integration and adoption

with related internal research programs as well as partner organizations from within the

DEVCOM, other Army and DoD service branches and agencies, in addition to other government

agencies.

Proposals that follow the requirements of the FOA will be evaluated in accordance with merit-based,

competitive procedures. These procedures will include evaluation factors and an adjectival and color

rating system. A review team, consisting of a qualified group of Government scientists and managers

will evaluate the compliant proposals and provide the results of that evaluation to the decision-maker for

the Government. Relevant internal research program materials approved for public release and contact

information will be provided to potential proposers during introductory presentations to help facilitate

identification of collaboration between proposers and individual ARL researchers or internal research

programs. Additional connections to ARL programs can be identified during the proposal review process.

Eligible applicants under this FOA include institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, and

for-profit organizations (i.e., large and small businesses) for scientific research in the knowledge domains

outlined throughout this Funding Opportunity. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers

(FFRDC) may propose as well, with effort as allowed by their sponsoring agency and in accordance with

their sponsoring agency policy.