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Palmer Luckey Is Bringing Anduril Smarts to Microsoft’s Military Headset
While known primarily for drones and air defenses, Anduril’s core offering is Lattice, a suite of software that powers those tools and a platform that can integrate with third-party systems. With today’s announcement, Lattice will be implemented in the Integrated Visual Augmentation System headset. Developed by Microsoft for the US military in 2021 and based on the company’s Hololens system, IVAS is an augmented-reality display that blends virtual information with a user’s view of the real world.
While virtual and augmented reality headsets remain a tough sell for the general public, Luckey says the US Army has been eager to experiment with the technology, primarily as a training tool but also as a way to deliver information more efficiently in critical situations. “The military is different,” Luckey says. “If you have an augmented-reality display that can make you 20 percent more lethal or make someone 10 percent safer, that’s a bigger improvement than just about any piece of gear you could give you.”
Inside Factory Rebuilding US Army’s Massive M1 Abrams
Army Selects Anduril and Palantir to Deliver TITAN Deep Sensing Capability for Long Range Fires
Anduril Industries announced that the company is part of the team selected by the Army to develop and manufacture the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) ground station system, the Army’s next-generation deep-sensing capability. The industry-defining team, led by Palantir Technologies, is made up of the nation’s leading traditional and non-traditional contractors. Under the partnership, Anduril will spearhead hardware design, development, and scaled manufacturing across 10 TITAN vehicles.
During the previous Competitive Prototyping Phase, Anduril spearheaded the design and manufacturing of a full working prototype vehicle. That prototype underwent rigorous testing during a five-month evaluation period to assess the system’s technical performance and usability across a series of test events replicating relevant operational scenarios. Those soldier touchpoints involved a combination of manned, overhead, and ground based ISR platforms spanning joint service technologies, validating system performance in fusing sensor data from disparate sources at the tactical edge.
Automated Disassembly of Deadly Weapons
In 2021, systems integrator CRG Automation successfully completed an unprecedented project to automate the process of disarming, disassembling and destroying 70,000 aging rockets filled with deadly nerve agents. The project was so successful that the Army came back to us with another task: Create an automated system to disassemble and destroy thousands of mortar rounds filled with highly toxic mustard agent. The rounds were stored at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP) in Pueblo, CO, and would have to be destroyed by the end of 2023.
The system was designed virtually using computational fluid dynamics, quickly proving that the concept would work. This was essential given the finished technology involved five subsystems and more than 2,000 parts.
CRG sent a series of engineers to the Colorado plant prior to installation to train the employees who had been unable to visit during the development. “They lived in our plant,” says Jackson, who had anticipated the installation process would take 60 days. Instead, because of the constant collaboration and the team’s approach, it took just 21. That’s faster than the industry standard of 42 days for just a simple conversion of existing equipment. “We’re talking about brand new systems here,” Ankrom says.
Neo4j Keeps the Army Running by Tracking Equipment Maintenance
The Army recognized the need to modernize its core tracking system. The scale of the information Neo4j handles is vast, including a 3TB database with over 5.2 billion nodes and 14.1 billion relationships. Working with CALIBRE, an employee-owned management consulting and IT solutions company that delivers enduring solutions to defense, federal, and commercial clients, the U.S. Army is now employing Neo4j as a major part of their solution for providing greater visibility into the total costs of owning a system.
$100M partnership between U.S. Army, University of Michigan fuels automotive research
An automotive research partnership between University of Michigan and the U.S. Army was extended for $100 million for five more years, university officials said Wednesday. The research doubles the federal government’s financial investment in the university’s Automotive Research Center, officials said Jan. 24. The research center launched in 1994 with federal assistance, and its partnership with the Army runs through 2028, officials said.
Canoo takes it one vehicle at a time
The first vehicles assembled at Canoo’s manufacturing facility were on display Wednesday inside its 630,000-square-foot plant as part of a batch in an agreement for up to 1,000 vehicles with the state of Oklahoma. In August 2022, Canoo announced an agreement with Walmart for 4,500 vehicles. Also last year, the U.S. Army awarded Canoo a contract to test its pickup truck.
In August, the company announced it signed agreements on incentives with the state for its vehicle assembly facility in Oklahoma City and a battery module manufacturing plant in Pryor with a combined value of up to $113 million for 10 years. The agreement has multiple benchmarks Canoo must meet to receive the funds. The battery plant and the assembly facility will bring more 1,300 jobs, according to a release.
Army Awards Palantir AI/ML Contract in Support of JADC2 Capabilities
Palantir Technologies Inc. today announced that the Army has awarded a new contract for up to three years to provide additional capabilities in support of the Combatant Commands (COCOMs), Armed Services, Intelligence Community, and Special Forces as they continue to test, utilize, and scale artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. The contract, posted to the Department of Defense contracting website last week, is worth up to $250 million through 2026.
Hybrid AI-Powered Computer Vision Combines Physics and Big Data
Many computer vision techniques infer properties of our physical world from images. Although images are formed through the physics of light and mechanics, computer vision techniques are typically data driven. This trend is mostly performance related: classical techniques from physics-based vision often score lower on metrics compared with modern deep learning. However, recent research, covered in this Perspective, has shown that physical models can be included as a constraint into data-driven pipelines. In doing so, one can combine the performance benefits of a data-driven method with advantages offered from a physics-based method, such as intepretability, falsifiability and generalizability. The aim of this Perspective is to provide an overview into specific approaches for integrating physical models into artificial intelligence pipelines, referred to as physics-based machine learning. We discuss technical approaches that range from modifications to the dataset, network design, loss functions, optimization and regularization schemes.
🖨️ Senvol to lead U.S. Army program focused on consistency of 3D printing performance
Senvol has announced that it has received funding from the U.S. Army to lead a program focused on demonstrating that consistent part performance can be achieved on different additive manufacturing machines located at different sites.
The program is titled “Applying Machine Learning to Ensure Consistency and Verification of Additive Manufacturing Machine and Part Performance Across Multiple Sites”, and commenced in March 2023, running through March 2025.
Aaron LaLonde, PhD, Technical Specialist – Additive Manufacturing at the U.S. Navy said “For additive manufacturing to be successfully implemented into the Army’s supply chain, it is essential to be able to produce parts of consistent performance even if different machines are used at different locations. Today, that is much easier said than done. During this program, we are pleased to work with Senvol to demonstrate the use of its machine learning technology to aid in achieving what everyone in the additive manufacturing industry strives for, a truly flexible supply chain.”
Go inside the plant making artillery rounds for U.S. and Ukrainian armies
How a robotic arm could help the US Army lift artillery shells
To fire artillery faster, the US Army is turning to robotic arms. On December 1, Army Futures Command awarded a $1 million contract to Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation to test a robot system that can handle and move artillery rounds.
An automated system, using robot arms to fetch and ready artillery rounds, would function somewhat like a killer version of a vending machine arm. The human gunner could select the type of ammunition from internal stores, and then the robotic loader finds it, grabs it, and places it on a lift. Should the robot arm perform as expected in testing, it will eliminate a job that is all repetitive strain. The robot, lifting and loading ammunition, is now an autonomous machine, automating the dull and menial task of reading rounds to fire.
Inspection procedure with Manifest® augmented reality work instruction - US Army Abrams Tank
U.S. Army Awards Taqtile Phase II Contract To Expand Work Instruction Platform For Motor Pool
The recently completed Phase 1 program enabled the Army to validate Manifest’s unique capabilities to support digital transformation of motor pool MRO. Manifest demonstrably empowered personnel to complete complex tasks more safely, more efficiently, and more accurately than was possible with outdated paper-based processes.
“The nature of service in the Army results in a high amount of turnover in its motor pools as soldiers rotate through their assignments,” said Mr. Kelly Malone, chief customer officer, Taqtile. “The expanded use of Manifest with Army personnel will clearly demonstrate that we are uniquely capable of delivering knowledge right to operators and the equipment they’re working on, helping them perform like experts.”
U.S. Army’s New Expeditionary 3D Concrete Printer Can Go Anywhere, Build Anything
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Automated Construction of Expeditionary Structures (ACES) program is a game changer for construction in remote areas. The project will supply rugged 3D concrete printers that can go anywhere and print (almost) anything. The project started several years ago when concrete printers were very much in their infancy, but even then it was obvious that commercial products would not fit the Army’s needs.
ACES has produced multiple printers working with different industry partners. For example, ACES Lite was made in partnership with Caterpillar under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. It packs into a standard 20-foot shipping container and can be set-up or taken down in 45 minutes, has built-in jacks for quick leveling and can be calibrated in a matter of seconds, making it more straightforward than other devices. Overall the printer resembles a gantry crane, with a concrete pump, hose and a robotic nozzle which lays down precise layers.
The new technology is not magic, as 3D-printed construction is still construction. It does not do everything. A printed building still requires a roof and finishing touches like any other construction work. In areas with good logistics where equipment, labor and materials are all plentiful, there may be little advantage to the ACES approach. But in expeditionary environments, where all these things are likely to be in short supply, ACES could make a real difference.