Project Call 27-01 seeks for technologies to facilitate U.S. defense manufacturing. Source: ARM Institute
Robotics is widely seen as key to both economic competitiveness and U.S. geopolitical security. The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, or ARM, Institute yesterday issued a project call seeking technologies to address defense needs in metalwork, drones, munitions, shipbuilding, and more.
Project Call 27-01 requests submissions for projects that demonstrate strong potential impact to the U.S. Department of War (DoW). They should also include a validated transition plan to the DoW’s commercial industrial base (CIB) and/or organic industrial base (OIB) and related supply chains.
The ARM Institute noted that it prefers dual-use technologies, which could benefit the broader U.S. manufacturing base in addition to military applications.
“Technologies with strong potential for successful commercialization are highly desired, as this reduces DoW cost and acquisition barriers,” said the institute. “Validated transition plans will preferably be demonstrated by inclusion of DoW and/or CIB government program stakeholders on the project team.”
U.S. military seeks faster production
All proposals must have a defense focus, fall between Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 4 and 7, and include a final demonstration in a production-relevant or representative environment, said the ARM Institute. It also encouraged the inclusion of government program office or program-of-record stakeholder in submissions where applicable.
The ARM Institute and DoW specified that each proposal must identify and respond to one of the following defense application areas:
- High-mix, low-volume castings and forgings
- Submarines and high-priority surface naval vessels
- Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and collaborative combat aircraft (CCA)
- Munitions, missiles, and hypersonic weapons
- Rapid and agile expansion of defense production
- Agile production of rapidly evolving system designs
- Other programs of record or validated high-priority DoW needs
The Pittsburgh-based institute also listed its technical topic areas relevant to this project call. It noted that submissions can focus on one or more of these technology development objectives:
- Multi-modal Inputs for AI robotics in manufacturing
- Rapid re-tasking and robot agility
- Multi-robot, multi-human collaboration and supervised autonomy
- Adaptive real-time path planning and control
- Mobile robotics
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While the project call is open to the public, concept papers must be submitted through the ARM Member Community by Sept. 16, 2026. The institute said it helps its more than 500 members to connect, collaborate, and contribute to the future of manufacturing. It will host an informational webinar on Aug. 19.
The ARM Institute will send invitations for the presentation phase around Oct. 13, and submissions for presentations and supporting documents will be on Dec. 2. The presentations themselves will be on or about Dec. 9, and final selections will be released on Dec. 11.
The subaward execution must be before Feb. 1, 2027, which is when awarded target projects will begin. The project team subcontract execution deadline is March 15, while the project period of performance end date is Jan. 31, 2028.
The ARM Institute said its intention is to provide a “platform for collaboration and innovation, fostering a community that works together to lift solutions off the ground that may have otherwise suffered from a lack of funding or engineering roadblocks.”
The ARM Institute brings together industry, academia, and government to make robotics and AI more accessible to U.S. manufacturers of all sizes, empower the workforce, strengthen global competitiveness, and elevate national resilience. It is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) funded by the Office of the Secretary of War under Agreement No. W911NF-17-3-0004 and is part of the Manufacturing USA network.
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