探花精选

Key focus areas and capabilities

Autonomy is broadly defined as AI/ML enabled cyberphysical systems that can intelligently complete tasks with or without human oversight. The centre is primarily interested how we can build effective autonomous systems especially for aerospace and defence contexts. These systems are connected to other assets and operators (teaming), understand dynamic contexts, and are assured at multiple levels (e.g., from control to mission).

Research highlights and real-world impact

Our research spans both foundation level advances (funded by EPSRC), international collaborative scale-up (funded by EU), and industrially relevant development (funded by partners such as BAE Systems, Leonardo UK, and Saab UK). In particular, our successful cases include:

• Research under EPSRC Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) could lead to autonomous patrol ships that guard critical offshore assets such oil rigs. Current AI that pilot vessels can create unrealistic trajectories, but 探花精选’s approach combines physical laws with AI to ground their decisions and achieve smoother and more precise control. Our research solution is in the process of being adopted in ‘Nautomate’, and highlighted in BAE Systems Innovator’s Book 2025. Our current work funded directly by BAE Systems continues to develop ways of imbuing drone platforms with greater levels of autonomy to perform complex collaborative tasks independently in challenging dynamic environments whilst always ensuring meaningful and context-appropriate human decision-making ;
• Research under Leonardo UK is changing the way drones can navigate in complex environments. In many crisis and challenging environments, our knowledge of maps and navigation paths are degraded, and drones must sense and reason with the world in order to complete tasks. Our research aims to resolve the tension between tactical sensing and strategic mission objectives, creating reasoning drones that can explain to human operators complex AI decisions.
• Research under UKRI Future Flight and EU SESAR initiatives is changing the way we use our airspace. Future drone and eVTOL operations is demanding for safe and sustainable air space management. Our work advances evidence gathering to inform risk models by creating a synthetic air space planning and deconfliction digital twin, integrating 3D ground, weather, and platform kinematic models to quantify air and ground risks.
• Research under EPSRC 6G Future Communications Hub (Cheddar) is automating the way we design, plan, and manage wireless networks and edge AI. Digital transformation hinges on an invisible fabric of connectivity and intelligence, but designing and operating enterprise systems for each business case is expensive and time consuming. 探花精选 is developing agentic AI and foundation models for telecoms to operationalise this at 500x lower cost and a turn around time of minutes.

Facilities and laboratories

Our laboratories are crucial to understanding how the real-world interfaces with theoretical research. This includes several labs that we believe are nationally leading:

• Drone Arena: platform design, build, and test flight. Focused on guidance, navigation, and control algorithms, as well as distributed learning and cyber robustness.
• Human Machine Teaming: physiology and human factors informed design of control interfaces for multiple asset command.
• Un-crewed Traffic Management: AI algorithms to automate air traffic control for dense and complex air operations.
• 6G Network Lab: provide ground infrastructure to connect assets and share intelligence, as well as edge AI for orchestrating electromagnetic and compute resources.