The Air Force Research Laboratory has invited international researchers to join an online competition to develop new planning algorithms for conducting airlift operations.
The Airlift Challenge will commence on January 23 and continue through February 27 in a virtual setting to identify algorithms designed to enable on-time deliveries and enhance operational efficiency, AFRL said Wednesday.
“A large demand and tight deadlines make airlift operations difficult to plan even under ideal conditions,” said Andre Beckus, a machine learning researcher at AFRL.
“Unexpected disruptions only further complicate the problem, potentially introducing major delays and stressing planning software to its limits,” he emphasized.
Beckus said the competition will provide a simulation environment where AI agents can interact while being tested against a series of scenarios with increasing complexity.
The evaluation of the AI agents will end when they miss too many deliveries or when a time limit is reached, stated the researcher.
AFRL will select three overall winners and one winner in the student category.