Autonomous Warrior (AW) 18 was a world class event delivering the largest autonomous systems demonstration to date by western allies. Held at HMAS Creswell in the surrounding bay and airfield during 5-23rd November 2018, the event was a joint initiative led by DST Group and supported by the Royal Australian Navy.
The event sought to enhance, demonstrate and evaluate the military utility of autonomous systems for future littoral operations. AW18 featured a military component and a series of scientific trials involving robotic and autonomous systems, as well as industry exhibitions and a VIP and Media program. The culminating event was the Autonomy Strategic Challenge.
Nova Systems was engaged to provide AW18 with Project Management and Engineering support to the Industry Dynamic Exhibition (IDE) portion of the event. Due to the challenging nature of the event, Nova was further engaged to expand their scope of work to include support to priority AW18 tasking and full management of the IDE. Nova provided engineering, data processing, project management, trials support, risk and safety assessments and industry and VIP liaison duties over the course of the event. Additional support was also provided by Nova subject matter experts to develop a UAS Safety Case for the Navy Regulatory Working Group.
Nova supported and guided DST and Navy through the planning, preparation and conduct phases to ensure AW18 was delivered to schedule and achieved objectives. AW18 was safely executed on time and within budget and led to the successful conclusion of the Autonomous Strategic Challenge. AW18 was highly successful in all respects for both the scientific trials and meeting the Industry objectives.