DARPA asks public to vote on combat vehicle design

The Defense Department’s brain trust is using crowdsourcing to help pick the top finalists to design a next-generation military vehicle.

The eXperimental Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle program is an effort managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to use crowdsourcing techniques to develop new technologies.

Using crowdsourcing applications was a key initiative of DARPA’s Peter Lee, the former head of the agency's Transformational Convergence Technology Office, who championed new and innovative approaches to managing programs. The XC2V program fits into this effort by opening up design and development competitions to public input. In the effort’s first phase, a design challenge, the agency asked individuals to co-create a vehicle design body for two missions, combat reconnaissance and combat delivery and evacuation.

Now that the designs have been submitted, DARPA is reaching out to the public to help pick the winner. “DARPA offers the public the opportunity to make a difference in advancing military technology and the process used to develop future vehicle concepts.  Voting is now open for the XC2V Design Challenge,” said an agency release.

The top three designs with the most votes will receive cash prizes. The winning plan will become an operating prototype this summer. Winners will be announced March 15. Click here to vote.