TRIAGE-X: Autonomous Casualty Triage and Treatment in Chemically Contaminated Mass Casualty Events

DARPA seeks innovative approaches to autonomous chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear (CBRN) triage that measurably improve casualty survival and increase the effective capacity of a medical response during CBRN disasters. Early situational awareness and timely treatment is a matter of life and death in battlefield and disaster medical triage. Responder vulnerability in hazardous environments caused by CBRN attacks adds significant difficulty to the medical response. When a mass casualty incident (MCI) occurs within a chemically contaminated area, the medical response is hindered by uncertainty while the threat is assessed and characterized. To ensure safety of the responders, they must don protective equipment before entry, delaying initial assessment, triage, and treatment with life-saving interventions (LSIs). Personal protective equipment (PPE) also imposes a physiological and functional penalty on responders resulting in slower movement, higher energy expenditure, heat stress, impaired respiration, and reduced manual dexterity; these penalties further impede responders’ ability to perform life-saving interventions. Effective stabilization occurs in the cold zone after casualties have been decontaminated [1,2], compounding the delay to evacuation and definitive care. The DARPA Triage Challenge (DTC) has demonstrated that autonomous air and ground systems, using standoff sensors, can locate casualties, characterize injury patterns, and support triage prioritization in realistic MCI conditions [3]. Using DTC triage support capabilities as a starting point, this solicitation aims to extend capabilities to operating in chemically hazardous environments where injury patterns have distinct signatures or toxidromes. Success here extends proven autonomous triage into the one of the most challenging settings where human entry is dangerous and delayed, and where early antidote delivery most directly determines casualty survival [4].Proposed systems should be able to locate and assess casualties for traumatic injuries and chemical toxidromes, generate triage recommendations, and deliver appropriate initial treatments to reverse, stabilize, or prevent the toxic effects of chemicals. Solutions should be designed for realistic operational use in difficult terrain under challenging environmental conditions. DARPA does not prescribe a specific platform, sensor suite, or level of autonomy. Offerors are encouraged to propose the human-machine teaming arrangement that best improves decision quality and casualty outcomes, and to define how their system fails safely when conditions exceed its competence. Approaches should be realistic in scope, repurposed within the period of performance, and grounded in how CBRN mass casualty response actually unfolds.At minimum, the effort shall deliver a demonstrated prototype that detects at least two representative chemical toxidromes and applies appropriate initial treatments for the assessed toxidrome following human-in-the-loop treatment approval.