Duke University To Lead $24 Million Research Center With U.S. Army To Detect, Thwart And Control Enemy Drones
Last week, Duke University announced a $24 million award from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Office (DEVCOM ARO) to develop the foundational science required to engineer and build systems to counter unmanned aerial attacks. The six-year cooperative agreement establishes the Inducing Cyber and Physical Effects in Unmanned Aerial Systems via Cyber-Electromagnetic Convergence (ICE-CEM) center, bringing together experts from seven leading academic institutions and Lockheed Martin to give the U.S. and its allies a technological advantage as unmanned systems and electronic warfare rapidly evolve.
Led by Miroslav Pajic, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, ICE-CEM brings together experts in wireless systems, Global Navigation Satellite Systems and navigation warfare, cybersecurity, edge computing, AI and autonomy. Their mandate is to develop the fundamental tools and automated procedures needed to detect, thwart and control enemy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with minimal system interaction and limited knowledge of the target UAVs.
“We have already seen firsthand how unmanned systems are reshaping modern warfare, and the pace of innovation in drone technology, autonomy and electronic warfare is only accelerating,” said Pajic. “ICE-CEM is about getting ahead of that evolution by giving operators a continuously adapting arsenal of effects that can disrupt, deceive, disable or potentially take control of adversarial UAVs.”
The center is the culmination and convergence of multiple decades-long research thrusts pursued by some of Duke Engineering’s most prolific faculty members.
