Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Autonomy
Engineering with intelligence
Designing, building, and applying new technologies—especially those that include artificial intelligence—can be a double-edged sword: powerful and enabling on the one hand, but potentially biased and vulnerable to infiltration on the other.
From health care to planetary defense and national security, ֱ APL continues to make advances in AI to ensure the technology’s capabilities while identifying, minimizing, or eliminating its weaknesses.
A Laboratory-wide collaborative community of AI researchers and applied scientists works in domains from beneath the sea to outer space to innovatively incorporate autonomy, computer vision, machine learning, and other AI techniques across the breadth of our programs and projects. Internally funded AI exploration and research help us take bold steps in this realm to continue advancing AI for the good of the nation and the world.
Featured Facility
Intelligent Systems Center →
The Intelligent Systems Center (ISC) leverages APL’s broad expertise across national security, space exploration, and health to fundamentally advance the employment of intelligent systems for our nation’s critical challenges. The ISC acts as a focal point for research and development in artificial intelligence, robotics, and neuroscience at APL.
Related Projects
Accelerating Air Quality Forecasts
Severe wildfires have released millions of smoke-borne contaminants into the air, setting off air quality alerts across the country. APL is using artificial intelligence to accelerate air quality forecasts and ultimately deliver a better understanding of how and where these pollutants will travel.
Agile and Intelligent Robots
Developing novel controls for robotic systems operating safely in complex environments
AI for Climate Intelligence
Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and mathematics to spur innovation and novel solutions to challenges at the intersection of earth systems and national security
AI for Tipping Point Discovery
Artificial intelligence experts and oceanographers are integrating AI with traditional climate modeling methods to enable scientific researchers to better understand tipping points, critical thresholds that, once crossed, could “tip” a natural Earth system into an entirely different state.
AlphaDogfight Trials
APL served as a core member of the Air Combat Evolution program team created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the 2020 AlphaDogfight Trials, a showdown between eight AI research teams from across the United States.
Golden Horde
Achieving networked, collaborative offensive weapons systems that will learn from their environment and autonomously work together to defeat integrated air and missile defenses.
Lifelong Learning Machines
Enabling intelligent systems that continuously adapt to changing conditions and missions in the real world
Mission-Focused Generative AI
Inventing the future of artificial intelligence for the nation by advancing frontier models that enable creativity, subject-matter expertise, and personification
Neural Interfaces
Directly interfacing with the nervous system to restore lost functions and enhance human capability
Neuroscience-Inspired Artificial Intelligence
Developing next-generation algorithms and computing substrates that leverage neurobiology to revolutionize intelligent systems
Revolutionizing Materials Discovery for National Security
APL is reimagining and accelerating the targeted discovery of materials tailored to withstand and perform in the most demanding conditions, ensuring enhanced capabilities in extreme environments.
Robust and Resilient Artificial Intelligence
Developing the next generation of intelligent systems for missions characterized by uncertain, dynamic, and adversarial environments
Swarming Uncrewed Surface Vehicles
APL, in collaboration with the Naval Air Warfare Center Port Hueneme Weapons Division, led a swarming uncrewed surface vehicle demonstration of advanced multivehicle autonomy at tactically relevant speeds.
Uncrewed Surface Vessel Perception
International regulations for preventing collisions at sea require vessels to operate within certain distances based on the visual identification of other vessels.
Related News
News
Feb 13, 2025
Revolutionizing Battlefield Medicine: Augmented Reality for Lifesaving Trauma Care
ֱ APL researchers are leveraging predictive anatomy visualization, artificial intelligence and real-time ultrasound to help medics provide faster and more accurate medical care in the field.
News
Jan 16, 2025
At-Home ‘Retinal Selfies’ May Provide a Window on Health
Researchers at ֱ APL and the ֱ Medicine Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore are designing a retinal imaging platform in the form of wearable eyeglasses that has the potential to expand access to retinal imaging and generate enough data to train machine learning models for accelerated research and improved diagnostic capabilities.
News
Jan 6, 2025
ֱ APL Reaches Highest Mark for Intellectual Property Disclosures
APL staff members filed a record 564 intellectual property disclosures in fiscal year 2024, reinforcing the Laboratory’s strategic value to sponsors and the nation and demonstrating an initial return on the Laboratory’s multimillion-dollar investments in transforming novel ideas into real and impactful solutions.
News
Dec 4, 2024
From the Battlefield to Breast Cancer Detection, ֱ APL Technologies Find Dual Impact
APL researchers used artificial intelligence and two APL-patented imaging technologies to improve the accuracy and efficiency of breast cancer screening. The imaging technologies were originally created for satellite and military applications.
News
Nov 19, 2024
Roads to Reservoirs: Expanding the Scope of Global Emissions Tracking
ֱ APL has expanded its partnership with the Climate TRACE coalition to enhance AI-powered tracking of global greenhouse gas emissions, including new sources like wastewater treatment plants and reservoirs.