Estados Unidos depende de una variedad de materias primas no combustibles denominadas “minerales cr\u00edticos” para fabricar productos considerados esenciales para la seguridad nacional.\u00a0Estos productos pueden variar desde minerales de tierras raras en motores y generadores el\u00e9ctricos hasta fibra de carbono utilizada para aviones.\u00a0El aumento de la demanda, junto con la oferta interna limitada y la creciente dependencia de las empresas extranjeras, plantea riesgos significativos para la cadena de suministro. DARPA se ha asociado con el Servicio Geol\u00f3gico de EE.UU. (USGS).<\/p>\n
The United States depends on a variety of raw, non-fuel materials dubbed \u201ccritical minerals\u201d to manufacture products considered essential to national security. These products can range from rare earth minerals in electric motors and generators, to the carbon fiber used for airplanes. Increasing demand, coupled with limited domestic supply and increasing reliance on foreign companies to import these critical minerals, poses significant risks to the U.S. supply chain.<\/p>\n
DARPA has partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to explore the potential for machine learning and artificial intelligence tools and techniques to accelerate critical mineral assessments. The goal is to significantly speed up the assessment of the nation\u2019s critical mineral resources by automating key steps in the process.<\/p>\n
The Energy Act of 2020 called for the USGS to assess all critical mineral resources in the U.S. In addition, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law called on the USGS to assess potential critical mineral resources in mine wastes. These assessments can quantify potential mineral sources from existing domestic mines \u2013 whether historical or active \u2013 and help identify opportunities for economically and environmentally viable resource development.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the challenge: The list of critical minerals currently includes 50 minerals and current assessments are labor intensive. Using traditional techniques, assessing all 50 critical minerals would proceed too slowly to address present-day supply chain needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe USGS\u2019s critical mineral resource assessments are at the heart of our domestic supply and production of critical minerals,\u201d said Dr. Anne Fischer, deputy director of DARPA\u2019s Defense Sciences Office. \u201cWe want to have a measurable, immediate impact on the USGS\u2019s ability to reach some of its objectives, especially in ways that are critical to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of the exploratory study, DARPA, in collaboration with the USGS, MITRE and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, launched the AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition. This competition solicits innovative solutions for automatically extracting and georeferencing features from scanned or raster maps.<\/p>\n
The competition will include the following two, independent challenges:<\/p>\n
Competition registration for the first challenge on map georeferencing opens August 15; registration for the second challenge on map feature extraction opens September 5. For each of the two challenges, DARPA will award $10,000 for the first prize, $3,000 for the second prize, and $1,000 for the third prize in October 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cDARPA is known for fostering innovation by creating problem-focused research communities, and we\u2019re excited to put the results of this competition to immediate use,\u201d said Sarah Ryker, associate director for energy and mineral resources at the USGS. \u201cThe United States is under-mapped, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a historic opportunity to catch up \u2013 if we can precisely target our investments in new mapping. We hope that new capabilities emerging from these challenges will enable us to do exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n