SAM #DARPA-PS-26-28

DARPA Solicitation for Biological Processing Units and Sensor-Integrated Drone Navigation (O-Circuit Program)

DARPA's Biological Technologies Office is seeking research proposals for the Organoid Cytomorphic Intelligence (O-Circuit) program, focused on developing next-generation biological processing units (BPUs) for edge computing and AI/ML applications. - Government Buyer: - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Biological Technologies Office (BTO), Arlington, VA - OEMs and Vendors: - No specific OEMs or vendors are named in the solicitation - Products/Services Requested: - Research and development of novel biological processing units (BPUs) with advanced learning and memory capabilities - Task Area 1 (TA1): Design and demonstration of BPU architectures capable of complex computational learning and memory, evaluated using a virtual Ms. Pac-Man environment - Task Area 2 (TA2): Integration of BPUs with biological odorant sensor arrays and drone navigation systems for chemotaxis (odor-guided navigation) - Key performance metrics include: - Ability to detect 50 odorants in Phase 1 and 100 in Phase 2 - Drone navigation accuracy to odorant sources - Demonstrated learning and inference in neural tissue systems - Unique or Notable Requirements: - Development of unconventional, integrated biological computing systems for sense-compute-act paradigms - Emphasis on power efficiency and suitability for austere, edge environments - Capability demonstrations at the end of each program phase - No specific part numbers, commercial products, or purchase quantities are listed - Period of Performance: - 32 months total (18 months Phase 1, 14 months Phase 2), with a possible but not currently solicited 10-month Phase 3 - Estimated funding: $36 million for 5-7 awards - Primary places of performance: DARPA/BTO Headquarters in Arlington, VA, and a West Coast test and evaluation site

Description

While semiconductor-based computation is readily deployed in well-resourced environments, it is challenged by sustained applications ‘at the edge’ due to inherent power inefficiencies. This is a particular limitation for the Department of War (DoW) when operating in austere environments, especially when using advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) applications with high energy demands for both training and inference. New unconventional computing concepts, such as synthetic biological intelligence, have the potential to fundamentally address these limitations but do not yet possess the necessary training and inference capabilities for practical applications. To meet these needs, the O-Circuit program will explore methods for improving the learning, inference, and computational memory of neural tissue systems to develop an integrated biological processing unit (BPU) that establishes a new paradigm for sense-compute-act for edge applications.

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