The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research wing of the US Defense Department, is funding projects that use artificial intelligence to rethink the way complex components are designed. One project involves a system called “intelligent design,” which uses algorithms and data from computer simulations to design new parts for military aircraft. One entrant, D-FOCUS, from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PARC, the research company spun out of Xerox, doesn’t come up with new designs from scratch but offers up alternatives to existing designs, allowing a human designer to explore more options and compare trade-offs before committing to a potentially very expensive plan.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research wing of the US Defense Department, is funding projects that use artificial intelligence to rethink the way complex components are designed. While machine learning is also already used in some areas of design and engineering, DARPA wants to apply it to determining function and form. One entrant, D-FOCUS, from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PARC, the research company spun out of Xerox, doesn’t come up with new designs from scratch but offers up alternatives to existing designs, allowing a human designer to explore more options and compare trade-offs before committing to a potentially very expensive plan.