Nichols Martin
CFD Research has secured a $42.6 million contract under the Small Business Innovative Research program to help the Air Force Research Laboratory integrate artificial intelligence into a range of sensor systems.
The company said Tuesday it will implement and refine a framework that uses machine learning, deep learning, edge computing and other advanced technologies to boost the effectiveness of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, under the ML for Open Systems contract.
The Phase III effort will use a modular open system approach to boost interoperability and the performance of autonomous operations, with the goal of enabling a system that incorporates multiple sensor technologies, such as radio frequency, hyperspectral and electro-optical-infrared.
The contractor would develop, modify and update signal processing algorithms, data compression techniques and ways to distribute the resulting information.
The U.S. Air Force awarded the contract for third phase activities under the government’s SBIR program. Phase III further funds and continues research work done in previous SBIR phases.
“The Air Force realizes that future systems will require new approaches that leverage AI/ML to be competitive in a time-sensitive anti-access/area denial adversarial world,” said George Dalton, vice president at CFD Research.
