Objectives

Digital transformation, due to the production and use of ever larger amounts of data and the increasing involvement of AI in defence systems and decision-making processes, is becoming critical for defence operations. Under EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE, the call supports Research actions (technological challenges) funded through lump sum grants and targets any eligible consortium. It focuses on advancing AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones through two linked strands: participation by several research teams and the organisation of the common challenge environment. For participating consortia, assisting soldiers with robots and drones that can provide accurate tactical situational awareness by using AI becomes essential for soldier protection.

The call aims to follow on and complement previous activities in the field of hidden threat detection and explore solutions involving various combinations of intelligent robots, drones and sensing technologies for advanced detection and recognition of threats, in view of their avoidance or neutralisation. These solutions should be tested under realistic scenarios in a comparable and objective manner to reach up to Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 6; each consortium supported will benefit from a common testing environment set up as part of a technological challenge and will have to participate in the experiment campaigns organised with this objective. For the organiser strand, the automatic analysis of tactical situations using fleets of robots, drones and AI is an important research topic that lacks standardised benchmarks and objective evaluation campaigns. The organiser is expected to set up a testing environment and organise a technological challenge enabling objective comparisons between different approaches; data should be collected during field tests, annotated and shared to enable validation of system performances based on precise evaluation criteria and plans. The call also contributes to the STEP objectives in the target investment area of deep and digital technologies.

Actions

This call covers the following topics:

EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAP-STEP: AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones – Participation in a technological challenge

EDF-2026-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-DIGIT-AISAO: AI-based tactical situational awareness using swarms of small robots and drones – Organisation of a technological challenge