Page 33 - FCW, July 2017
P. 33

Artificial intelligence is helping the Army keep its Stryker armored vehicles in fighting shape.
Army officials are using IBM’s Watson AI system in combination with onboard sensor data, repair manuals and 15 years of maintenance data to predict mechanical problems before they happen. IBM and the Army’s Redstone Arsenal post in Alabama demonstrated Watson’s abilities on 350 Stryker vehicles during a field test that began in mid-2016.
The Army is now reviewing the results of that test to evaluate Watson’s ability to assist human mechanics, and the early insights are encouraging.
The Watson AI enabled the pilot program’s leaders to create the equivalent of a “personalized medicine” plan for each of the vehicles tested, said Sam Gordy, general manager of IBM U.S. Federal. Watson was able to tell mechanics that “you need to go replace this [part] now because if you don’t, it’s going to break when this vehicle is out on patrol,” he added.
The Army is one of a handful of early adopters in the federal government, and several other agencies are looking into using AI, machine learning and related technologies. AI experts cite dozens of potential government uses, including cognitive chatbots that answer common questions from the public and complex AIs that search for patterns that could signal Medicaid fraud, tax cheating or criminal activity.
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