Background
In an endeavour to promote human-machine teaming, Dr Artur Lugmayr, founder of UXMachines Pty Ltd, is leading a collaboration with The University of Western Australia set on bringing transparency to decisions made by autonomous aerial systems.
The growing relevance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is driving the innovation space. As the capabilities and variety in the applications of AI grow, a slow or superficial adoption of AI across the defence sector will risk Australia facing an asymmetric disadvantage.
Consider the pairing of AI systems with aerial drones to autonomously analyse conflict or disaster sites, direct search and rescue efforts, and provide aerial assistance. Such systems would collect and interpret data to make autonomous decisions quicker and with a more holistic view of a situation than a human could. There's a necessity to interpret and present the reasoning behind these decisions in a manner that humans can understand.
Approach
Dr Lugmayr and his team are developing their software, ‘DecAI’, to answer this challenge with the support of a Defence Science Centre (DSC) Collaborative Research Grant (CRG). DecAI will explore approaches to help people comprehend decisions made by fully autonomous aerial systems. The team’s overarching objective is to foster more seamless human-machine collaboration in reconnaissance, disaster management, and comprehension of complex scenarios.
Simultaneously, the group is delving into image processing algorithms tailored for recognition of specific objects, encompassing both visible light and thermal spectra in a step toward enabling on-board autonomous decision-making.
Outcome
“As part of this project, we collaborate with a team at The University of Western Australia (UWA) to investigate vision technologies to identify potential hazardous situations in emergency situations. ... Collaboration with AI should be on mission level goals rather than piloting a drone.” says Dr Artur Lugmayr (Founder/Director, UXMachines Pty Ltd).
“This project is a step forward towards the cutting-edge solutions to bridge the gap of understanding between the human intelligence and artificial intelligence. The project unlocks the potential for deeper collaboration between humans and AI, paving the way for a future of shared understanding.” says Dr Ghulam Mubashar Hassan (Senior Lecturer, UWA).
The implementation of DecAI will bolster Australian defence efforts, helping humans to make better decisions in complex scenarios.
