Saab’s Autonomy and AI Team Energizes Smarter Products
Hear from Saab’s Julia Allen about how the company’s new Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Team has unified around one goal – to make each of the company’s products and solutions smarter.
Saab’s new Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research and Development Team was recently created with one goal – to make each of the company’s products and solutions smarter through machine learning or AI technologies. With this “every product, smarter” mindset, Saab’s team of machine learning scientists and engineers is exploring and applying emerging data-driven technologies to everything from unmanned surface vessels to radar systems.
Helmed by Saab’s Julia Allen, chief scientist, Autonomy and AI, the team’s primary focus is developing AI technologies to further support Saab’s customers across all U.S. Department of Defense branches, helping government research and development leaders take on their hardest challenges.
“We’ve built a team that can tackle the DoD’s toughest technical challenges, and we’re leveraging our existing partnerships to accelerate the pace of our developments,” said Allen. “Our collective expertise and capability-focused development enable rapid autonomy and AI enhancements across the Saab product portfolio, ultimately reaching end-users across the defense community. The Autonomy and AI Research and Development Team is on the cutting edge of these advancements.”
Over the last six months, the Autonomy and AI Research and Development Team has made significant progress, thanks to critical relationships across Saab product teams, the U.S. government and academia. Understanding the current state of existing products and determining new areas appropriate for AI enhancements is crucial to developing useful improvements for the company’s customers.
“Saab’s long-term customer relationships and intimate understanding of desired future capabilities allow us to understand the product teams’ and end-user customers’ appetites for how and in what capacities they are ready to adopt AI technologies,” said Allen. “The team is working with government research and development leaders to understand current gaps in defense capabilities to ensure that we’re making enhancements to our products that really matter to our customers. We’re also working with universities to help increase the team’s innovation velocity and expedite the development of AI solutions.”
New programs with the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have recently kicked off, exploring technology developments for Saab’s radar systems, airport security and maritime systems products. The company has also made internal funding commitments with four universities to conduct collaborative research across a variety of areas.
While enhancing existing defense industry products remains Saab’s top priority, the company plans to infuse AI capability enhancements into existing and new products and solutions for all partners. Thanks to this productive innovation pipeline, Saab plans for a nearly continuous roll-out of smarter, AI-enhanced products across all product lines.