Description
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking information on novel, U.S. manufactured and assembled, aerial platforms and containers that can enable autonomy level 4, long-constellation endurance, and drones with continuous electrical power available to payloads. The agency is looking for responses that provide information and insights related to core capability metrics, including autonomous container operation, constellation management software, and innovative configurations of autonomous container-based deployment solutions. The goal is to achieve high-endurance constellations consisting of drones with meaningful payload size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) staged from fully autonomous containers capable of complete mission-cycle management.
Some key points to consider include:
• Autonomy level 4 for the system's operation
• Long-constellation endurance (on the order of multiple days)
• Drones with continuous electrical power available to payloads
• Constellation management software
• Autonomous container operation
• Innovative configurations of autonomous container-based deployment solutions