An APL engineer modifies a robot to test its navigation algorithms

Artificial Intelligence

Engineering with intelligence

Designing, building, and applying new technologies—especially those that include artificial intelligence—can be a double-edged sword: powerful and enabling on the one hand, but potentially biased and vulnerable to infiltration on the other.

From national security to planetary defense and health care, Johns Hopkins APL continues to make advances in AI to ensure the technology’s capabilities while identifying, minimizing, or eliminating its weaknesses.

A Laboratory-wide collaborative community of AI researchers and applied scientists works in domains from beneath the sea to outer space to innovatively incorporate autonomy, computer vision, machine learning, agentic AI, and other techniques across the breadth of our programs and projects. Internally funded AI exploration and research help us take bold steps in this realm to continue advancing AI for the good of the nation and the world.

Featured Facility
Intelligent Systems Center

Intelligent Systems Center →

The Intelligent Systems Center (ISC) leverages APL’s broad expertise across national security, space exploration, and health to fundamentally advance the employment of intelligent systems for our nation’s critical challenges. The ISC acts as a focal point for research and development in artificial intelligence, robotics, and neuroscience at APL.


Learn more about Intelligent Systems Center

Related Work

Erik Johnson, a machine learning researcher at Johns Hopkins APL, demonstrating how agents are evaluated for lifelong learning on ISC-developed L2Explorer.

Lifelong Learning Machines

Enabling intelligent systems that continuously adapt to changing conditions and missions in the real world
Learn more about Lifelong Learning Machines
ISC researchers Elizabeth Reilly and Jason Lee apply mathematical models to understand how different shocks impact food security.

AI for Complex Systems

Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and mathematics to spur innovation and novel solutions to challenges at the intersection of Earth systems and national security
Learn more about AI for Complex Systems
AlphaDogfight

AlphaDogfight Trials

APL served as a core member of the Air Combat Evolution program team created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the 2020 AlphaDogfight Trials, a showdown between eight AI research teams from across the United States.
Learn more about AlphaDogfight Trials
Golden Horde

Golden Horde

Achieving networked, collaborative offensive weapons systems that will learn from their environment and autonomously work together to defeat integrated air and missile defenses.
Learn more about Golden Horde
Brain (Credit: Bigstock)

Mapping the Brain

APL led testing and evaluation efforts for IARPA’s MICrONs project, launched to create state-of-the-art machine learning capabilities by discovering how brain circuits process information.
Learn more about Mapping the Brain
Autonomous swarming unmanned surface vessels (SUSVs) — equipped with Johns Hopkins APL-developed hardware and autonomy software

Uncrewed Surface Vessel Perception

International regulations for preventing collisions at sea require vessels to operate within certain distances based on the visual identification of other vessels.
Learn more about Uncrewed Surface Vessel Perception
Swarming unmanned surface vehicles

Swarming Uncrewed Surface Vehicles

APL, in collaboration with the Naval Air Warfare Center Port Hueneme Weapons Division, led a swarming uncrewed surface vehicle demonstration of advanced multivehicle autonomy at tactically relevant speeds.
Learn more about Swarming Uncrewed Surface Vehicles

Related News

Allison Moyer (left) and Jenelle Millison (right) demonstrate how to use the ATLAS system (Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman)
News

Mar 9, 2026

‘ATLAS’ System Lifts Johns Hopkins APL Leadership in Automated Experimentation

An interdisciplinary APL team created ATLAS, an artificial intelligence co-investigator that automates testing, learning, and synthesis for microcapsules, which has decreased human labor required per experiment by more than 80% and advances APL progress in microcapsule development and automated experimentation.
Learn more about ‘ATLAS’ System Lifts Johns Hopkins APL Leadership in Automated Experimentation
An artist’s rendering of an urban air mobility environment, where manned and unmanned aircraft of different types share the skies safely and efficiently. (Credit: NASA)
News

Feb 10, 2026

Johns Hopkins APL Research Helps Shape Landmark Federal Expansion of Unmanned Aircraft Operations

An APL research team help set new standards that could help drones more safely share America’s skies.
Learn more about Johns Hopkins APL Research Helps Shape Landmark Federal Expansion of Unmanned Aircraft Operations
APL Microsoft Robotics Demo
Press Release

Dec 2, 2025

Johns Hopkins APL and Microsoft’s AI Agent Orchestrates Robotic Teams

APL and Microsoft recently demonstrated an AI agent that can coordinate heterogeneous robot teams using large language models. The September demo highlighted how APL’s expertise in autonomy software and Microsoft’s scalable cloud tools are advancing the future of collaborative robotics. The effort reflects steady progress in a partnership focused on applying artificial intelligence to real-world challenges.
Learn more about Johns Hopkins APL and Microsoft’s AI Agent Orchestrates Robotic Teams
USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in Dry Dock 6 post dewatering at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash., March 5, 2018 (Credit: US Navy/Thiep Nguyen)
Press Release

Nov 12, 2025

New Robotic Arm Opens Doors to Explore Future of Maritime Repair

Johns Hopkins APL has installed a state-of-the-art robotic arm to advance repair and manufacturing for the maritime industrial base. Using wire arc additive manufacturing and advanced sensing technologies, the system makes faster, more precise repairs of oversized components possible—strengthening fleet readiness and reducing costs. This innovation builds on APL’s commitment to supporting Navy sustainment and industrial agility.
Learn more about New Robotic Arm Opens Doors to Explore Future of Maritime Repair
Rendering of holographic soldiers walking through a digital environment (Credit: Adobe Stock)
News

Oct 30, 2025

Johns Hopkins APL Establishes AI Wargaming Lab to Boost Strategic National Security Analysis and Planning

APL is fusing its analytic and cutting-edge AI capabilities into a forward-leaning incubator, known as GenWar Lab, that leverages advanced AI and large language model capabilities to support the wargames and tabletop exercises that enable military decision-makers to explore dynamic and wide-ranging mission scenarios.
Learn more about Johns Hopkins APL Establishes AI Wargaming Lab to Boost Strategic National Security Analysis and Planning

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