Adaptive Vehicle Make

Adaptive Vehicle Make was a portfolio of programs overseen by DARPA, of the United States Department of Defense.

AVM attempted to address revolutionary approaches to the design, verification, and manufacturing of complex defense systems and vehicles.

The scope of this process can be seen in the Integrated Defense Acquisition, Technology, & Logistics Life Cycle Management Framework.

Intel, for instance, has an excellent track record in getting systems right in the design phase so that extensive testing and integration are not needed.

The goal of the AVM program was to move to this model for building large, complex, heterogeneous cyber-mechanical systems for increased cost and schedule efficiencies.

The goal of META was to analyse interactions between components and provide verification and validation (V&V) of designs without prototyping in order to shorten development time.

[2] iFAB looked to lay the groundwork for development of a foundry-style manufacturing capability – taking as input a verified system design specified in an appropriate metalanguage – capable of rapid reconfiguration to accommodate a wide range of design variability and specifically targeted at the fabrication of military ground vehicles.

Fast Adaptable Next-Generation Ground Vehicle (FANG GCV) was a portfolio of three loosely related projects.

[1] The FANG GCV attempted to crowdsource the design of an infantry fighting vehicle culminating in prototypes.

[7] The drivetrain and power pack developed under the FANG challenge was built and tested successfully, and the meta design tools were transitioned to industry years earlier than planned.

Similar approaches in software had proven very successful for collaboration and innovation, such as the "clone-and-own" paradigm commonly used on sites like github.com and sourceforge.net.