Program Summary
Automation and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing discovery and production of functional molecules by enabling fast, reproducible experimentation and efficient property optimization. These capabilities have already made a significant impact on prevalent molecular classes, such as pharmaceuticals, but niche areas characterized by unique chemical space, limited literature precedence, and requirements for specialized experimental hardware have experienced relatively slow improvement. One such area, critical to national security, is energetics.
The DARPA Rational Integrated Design of Energetics (RIDE) program will develop tools that speed and systematize energetics research, enabling advanced development and implementation of automation and discovery tools to the energetics domain. Specifically, these will include: 1) safe, semi-automated experimental capabilities that integrate energetics ingredient synthesis with formulation development and testing; and 2) theoretical, experimental, and/or statistical methods that enable safe, accurate evaluation of key energetics properties at reduced scale.