The U.S. Army Research Lab made breakthroughs this summer on two neural networks projects that could assist commanders' decision-making on the battlefield and provide soldiers' health information through fibers in their uniform. The advancements come as the U.S. military is preparing for data-driven battle, in which gobs of data are transmitted across the battlespace, processed and used in a commander's decision-making. Neural networks are a combination of algorithms that work together to recognize patterns in data through a process similar to that of the human brain. The first project is working to provide a tool to battle commanders that quantifies uncertainty in data analysis using neural networks. Researchers associated with the Army Research Lab created a new framework for neural network processing that would use artificial intelligence to provide confidence ratings.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Army researchers are working with the University of Illinois Chicago on unmanned technology for recharging drone swarms. The university has been awarded a four-year, $8 million cooperative agreement "to develop foundational science in two critical propulsion and power technology areas for powering future families of unmanned aircraft systems," according to a statement released by the Army Research Laboratory. "This collaborative program will help small battery-powered drones autonomously return from military missions to unmanned ground vehicles for recharging," the Army added.

A new algorithm is enabling deep learning that is more collaborative and communication-efficient than traditional methods. Army researchers developed algorithms that facilitate distributed, decentralized and collaborative learning capabilities among devices, avoiding the need to pool all data at a central server for learning. "There has been an exponential growth in the amount of data collected and stored locally on individual smart devices," said Dr. Jemin George, an Army scientist at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory. "Numerous research efforts as well as businesses have focused on applying machine learning to extract value from such massive data to provide data-driven insights, decisions and predictions." However, none of these efforts address any of the issues associated with applying machine learning to a contested, congested and constrained battlespace, George said.

This year has had its share of science and technology advances from Army researchers. The U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory, the Army's corporate research laboratory, has the mission to discover, innovate and transition science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. The lab's chief scientist, Dr. Alexander Kott, picked the coolest advances to showcase what Army scientists and engineers are doing to support the Soldier of the future with a top 10 list from 2019: Future Army robots will be the strongest in the world, if visionary researchers have their way. Robots could be armed with artificial muscles made from plastic. Army researchers collaborated with a visiting professor from Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering to study how plastic fibers respond when they are twisted and coiled into a spring.

A Phys.org article states that Army researchers are making huge strides in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) that can support U.S. soldiers on the battlefield. Their latest development is an affordable yet capable AI assistant that can reportedly help human troops learn more than 13 times faster than normal training methods. Featuring vastly improved machine learning capabilities, the AI will be installed upon the Army's future ground combat vehicles. It is intended to help a human soldier spot important clues, recognize the developing situation, and come up with a solution to the problem on the fly. The AI would reportedly help preserve American lives during the chaos of combat.