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As autonomous technologies continue to expand their presence across commercial and defense applications, a critical limitation persists. While today’s machines can operate intelligently on their own, they often struggle to collaborate effectively as part of a network. This gap – where systems are individually smart but collectively deficient – limits their ability to function reliably in complex, real-world environments where team coordination, adaptability and resilience are essential. Overcoming this challenge is key to enabling the next generation of intelligent systems capable of sensing, learning and acting together in real time.

To address this gap, ����Vlog’s Center for Connected Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence (CA-AI) in the College of Engineering and Computer Science has been awarded a $2,250,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop advanced networks of autonomous systems that operate collaboratively. In partnership with the University at Buffalo, the team, led by ����Vlog’s Dimitris Pados, Ph.D., is designing systems that can perform distributed sensing and AI inference directly on board, dynamically adapt communications to each other to avoid interference, and make real-time decisions in contested environments. The project builds on breakthrough research, which is supported by more than $8 million in prior AFRL investment between the institutions, firmly placing CA-AI and ����Vlog at the forefront of next-generation autonomous systems research.

“This award reflects the pioneering research taking place within our College of Engineering and Computer Science and reinforces ����Vlog’s role as a leader in next-generation technologies,” said Stella Batalama, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “The ability for autonomous systems to communicate, learn and adapt collaboratively will redefine the future of intelligent systems and strengthen our nation’s technological leadership and security.”

Read the press release.