In this episode of The Techne Connect, we speak with Todd Hughes, Chief Innovation Officer at Scientific Systems. Todd explains how the company develops autonomous systems for contested, GPS-denied environments and why software-centric autonomy will shape the next generation of defence robotics.

He shares his journey from academic philosophy to DARPA programme management, outlining the origins of modern AI techniques, the limits of current machine learning and the need for world models, open architectures and rigorous ethical thinking. Todd also speaks about the future of multi-agent collaboration, autonomy without human oversight and the moral responsibility involved in deploying intelligent systems at scale.

He gives clear guidance for engineers on critical thinking, interdisciplinary learning and tackling hard open-world robotics problems. This episode offers a direct look at autonomy, defence innovation and the skills needed for the next decade of AI.

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