KBR Collaborates with NASA and Amazon Web Services to Stage a Race of Fully Autonomous Vehicles

HOUSTON, Aug. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR (NYSE: KBR) has collaborated with NASA and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to successfully stage the "DeepRacer" event where racers operated fully autonomous vehicles using an advanced machine learning technique called reinforcement learning.   

NASA and KBR interns and other employees faced off at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Aug. 8 to see whose machine-learning models could propel an AWS DeepRacer vehicle around a track the fastest. Their models rewarded vehicles for speed and accuracy for staying on the course, allowing each vehicle to autonomously make short-term decisions to achieve long-term goals.

KBR intern Minh Nguyen's winning vehicle circled the track in 13.14 seconds.

At one-eighteenth the size of a normal car, the AWS DeepRacer allows reinforcement learning models built in virtual environments to be tested in the real world, which presents an accessible opportunity for exploring artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

KBR worked with AWS and NASA to organize this event, as well as a pre-race, four-hour workshop with an AWS DeepRacer expert to help interns build, test and fine-tune their reinforcement learning models.

"KBR understands the importance of investing in tomorrow's workforce. We are proud to have played a key role in an event that fueled interns' imaginations and developed their AI skills," said Byron Bright, President, KBR Government Solutions U.S.

"The DeepRacer event also provided an opportunity for NASA to experiment with autonomous systems for future exploration missions and showcased how the private and public sector can collaborate to leverage and advance technology," he continued.

As one of the world's largest human spaceflight support organizations and as NASA's second largest support services contractor, KBR has employees at 11 NASA sites who are helping solve the agency's biggest challenges. The company is forging the future through technology, innovation, and unmatched expertise, which includes intelligent robotics and autonomous systems, machine learning and AI.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program lifecycle within the Government Solutions and Energy sectors. KBR employs approximately 38,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses:

• Government Solutions, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full lifecycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics
• Technology Solutions, featuring proprietary technology, equipment, catalysts, digital solutions and related technical services for the monetization of hydrocarbons, including refining, petrochemicals, ammonia and specialty chemicals, as well as inorganics
• Energy Solutions, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU); program management and consulting services

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com.

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SOURCE KBR, Inc.