DARPA Project List (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was established 1958 in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik. DARPA reports directly to the Secretary of Defense; however, it operates independently of the rest of military research and development. Its basic principles are:

• Small and flexible, with a flat organization structure
• Autonomous organization
• World-class scientists and engineers work with representatives from industry, universities and government labs
• Project-based style; technical staff rotated every 3-5 years
• Program managers are selected to be technically outstanding and entrepreneurial.

Here's a listing of the DARPA-related projects presented on the Technovelgy site:

• Silent Talk 'Telepathy' For Soldiers
  '...allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.'
• TASC - DARPA's Psychohistory
  The agency is seeking whitepapers to fuel the development of a scientific approach to predicting the actions of large masses of people.
• Guided Bullets By Exacto From DARPA
  How is it possible that a bullet could redirect its own course in mid-flight?
• DARPA Seeks Self-Repairing Hunter-Killers?
  Tests to date have seen small aerial robots lose large chunks of themselves to hostile fire, yet carry on with their mission.
• DARPA Gandalf Project And Philip K. Dick
  A new defense department project to locate enemies precisely, and target them, by phone.
• EATR - DARPA's Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot
  Project to develop a robotic platform able to perform long missions while refueling itself by foraging.
• You Can't Hide From DARPA
  Harnessing Infrastructure for Building Reconnaissance (HIBR).
• Squishy SquishBot ChemBots Desired By DARPA
  ChemBots are soft, flexible robots that are able to alter their shape to squeeze through small openings and then regain their full size.
• Fracture Putty For Compound Fractures - DARPA
  An alternative to today's standard treatments, which often lead to further complications, and are not fully load-bearing,
• Submersible Aircraft - DARPA's Flying Sub?
  The minimal required airborne tactical radius of the sub-plane is 1000 nautical miles (nm).
• MAHEM Metal Jets Like Clarke's Stiletto Beam
  Create compressed magnetic flux generator (CMFG)-driven magneto hydrodynamically formed metal jets and self-forging penetrators (SFP).
• Precision Urban Hopper Robot Must 'Stick' Landings
  Intended to give wheeled robots an additional edge; the ability to jump up onto or over obstacles up to nine meters high.
• Katana Mono-Wing Rotorcraft Nano Air Vehicle
  The Katana Mono-Wing Rotorcraft is a coin-sized one-bladed helicopter.
• Micro Imagers For Sensing On Nano Air Vehicles
  With the impetus toward micro-air and -ground vehicles for military applications, there is a compelling need for imaging micro-sensors compatible with these small platforms.
• RESURRECT High-Fidelity Computer Battlefield Simulations
  Create high-fidelity computer simulations of in-theatre events for tactical, operational and strategic review
• Aqua Sciences Water From Atmospheric Moisture
  The program focused on creating water from the atmosphere using low-energy systems.
• Shape-Shifting Bomber In Need Of Plowsharing
  Shape-shifting supersonic bomber fans are feeling bereft this weekend.
• Automated Mammalian Training Devices
  The development of an automated mammalian training device would significantly reduce the need for human involvement.
• RISE Robot: Six-Legged BIODYNOTICS Runaway
  These Robots In Sensorial Environments are being developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon.
• DARPA Vulture Five Year Flying Wing
  Vulture is intended to fly for periods of up to five years unattended at 65,000 feet.
• LSTAT-lite Life Support For Trauma and Transport-lite Demoed
  LSTAT has been around since 1999; however, the LSTAT-lite is considerably lighter and more affordable.
• LANdroid WiFi Robots
  DARPA is soliciting proposals for intelligent autonomous radio relay nodes.
• HI-MEMS: Control Circuits Embedded In Pupal Stage Successfully
  Researchers have succeeded in implanting electronic circuit probes into tobacco hornworms as early pupae.
• HI-MEMS: Cyborg Beetle Microsystem
  The University of Michigan team has successfully created a cyborg unicorn beetle microsystem.
• Carnegie Mellon's Boss Wins DARPA Urban Challenge
  Carnegie Mellon's Boss, an autonomous Chevy Tahoe, was declared the winner.
• 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge Videos
  The teams will attempt to complete a complex 60-mile urban course with live traffic in less than six hours. Now, the videos.
• DARPA Wants Exoskeletons
  DARPA thinkers are saying that maybe humans themselves need an upgrade.
• DARPA Urban Challenge For Autonomous Vehicles
  Urban Challenge consists four sets of vehicle behavior requirements.
• IR Chemical Communication Graffiti Tags Wanted By DARPA
  The Chemical Communications (ChemComm) program objective is to encode and transmit information in a rapid and covert manner.
• Hybrid Insect MEMS Sought By DARPA For Bug Army
  HI-MEM-based bug armies? Our friends at DARPA seem to have cyborgs on the brain.
• DARPA's 'BigDog' Robot Now In Puppy Stage
  Project seeks to create algorithms that help multi-legged platforms learn to walk in varied terrain.
• DARPA Urban Challenge - KITT, Put Up Or Shut Up
  Autonomous ground vehicles will take to a mocked-up urban area to negotiate a 60-mile course.
• Star Wars Binoculars A Cognitive Technology Threat Warning
  They've dubbed the device "Luke's Binoculars," after the device used by Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars movie.
• DARPA Radar Scope Can Sense Thru Walls
  Handheld radar scope can provide troops with an ability that was formerly the province of science fictional superheroes alone.
• BigDog Quadruped Robot Update
  Good progress on Ray Bradbury's mechanical hound from Fahrenheit 451.
• DARPA Wants Exoskeletons
  In a briefing today on GovExec.com, a variety of projects from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) demonstrate that some science fiction thinking is good.
• Shark Cyborgs On DARPA Remote control
  In those Jaws movies, the shark seemed like it was out to get you. DARPA makes this dream come true.
• Bradbury's Mechanical Hound and DARPA's BigDog Robot
  In his chilling 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury created the mechanical hound, a robot that accompanied the firemen and helped with their work... DARPA has made a multi-million dollar investment in the soldier of the future's best friend - BigDog.
• DARPA Seeks Metabolic Dominance
  DARPA has initiated a new program called "Metabolic Dominance" to assure that soldiers have superior physiological qualities. Frank Herbert had the answer sooner, though.
• DARPA's Walrus and Griffith's War-Balloons
  Not your great-grandfather's airship, the Walrus will be able to lift a fighting force.
• DARPA's Radiation Decontamination (And 'Doc' Smith's Dekon)
  DARPA and a host of scientists are working on decontamination techniques for dirty bombs.
• Obtaining Unobtainium at DARPAtech 2004
  DARPA searches for impossible materials - unobtainium - and is succeeding.
• Springtail EFV-4B Personal Air Vehicle From Trek Aerospace
  The Springtail EFV-4B Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) is a fourth-generation vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) craft powered by a single engine.
• Trauma Pod Battlefield Medical Treatment System
  DARPA has awarded a $12 million contract to develop an automated medical treatment system that can recieve, assess and stabilize wounded soldiers immediately following injury. The trauma pod is used to treat soldiers on the battlefield using advanced
• Cormorant Submarine/Sea Launched MPUAV
  The Cormorant submarine and sea launched vehicle concept may remind you of science fiction glories past.
• Terminator Tether - EDT Solution To Space Debris Update
  Studies have shown that low Earth orbit is not a limitless resource and should be managed more carefully. Some sort of debris-mitigation measures are needed to solve the problem of old, unusable satellites and space junk.
• HELLADS: Lightweight Laser Cannon
  Ultra-light High Energy Liquid Lasers are coming.