The Internet of Battlefield Things Collaborative Research Alliance (IoBT-CRA), also known as the Internet of Battlefield Things Research on Evolving Intelligent Goal-driven Networks (IoBT REIGN), is a collaborative research alliance between government, industry, and university researchers for the purposes of developing a fundamental understanding of a dynamic, goal-driven Internet of Military Things (IoMT) known as the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT). [1] [2] It was first established by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to investigate the use of machine intelligence and smart technology on the battlefield, as well as strengthen the collaboration between autonomous agents and human soldiers in combat. [3] An initial grant of $25 million was provided by ARL in October 2017 to fund the first five years of this potential 10-year research program. [4] [5]
The research effort is a collaboration between ARL and Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Southern California, Georgetown University, and SRI International with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) acting as the consortium lead. [6] [7] [8]
The IoBT-CRA was created as part of the U.S. Army’s long-term plans to keep up with technological advances in commercial industry and better prepare for future electronic warfare against more technologically sophisticated adversaries. [9] In light of this objective, the IoBT-CRA focuses on exploring the capabilities of intelligent battlefield systems and large-scale heterogeneous sensor networks that dynamically evolve in real-time in order to adapt to Army mission needs. [4] Part of the CRA research is dedicated to enhancing modern intelligent sensor and actuator capacity, allowing them to be compatible with secure military-owned networks, less trustworthy civilian networks, and adversarial networks. [10]
ARL identified six areas of research that the IoBT-CRA should strive to develop as part of its program: [1] [11]
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