Seven universities are joining forces across the country in a new project focused on artificial intelligence.

Arizona State University is one of the schools supporting a project that's designing new intelligence for drones and robots. The purpose is to make intelligent technologies fully automated.

A $27 million dollar, 5-year grant is funding a national center for the project, which begins this month.

Center director Kaushik Roy of Purdue University said the goal is to develop neuro-inspired algorithms that can serve as a proxy for decision making. Roy said today's standard computing cannot complete full perception and reasoning efficiently.