Press Release

Image-based solution provides non-GPS navigation for weapons, aircraft, and uncrewed aircraft systems

WOBURN, Mass., February 21, 2024 – Scientific Systems, an industry leader in advanced artificial intelligence for defense applications, announced today that it is continuing development of ImageNav™, the company’s non-GPS, image-based, precision navigation software. The company has recently extended and demonstrated its image-based solution during flight operations ranging from 25,000 feet down to 200 feet. ImageNav has been developed for over a decade with funding totaling more than $45 million.

For many air vehicle flights, the military relies on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for navigation, risking exposure to electronic jamming in contested environments. The BBC has reported that Russia significantly upgraded their electronic-warfare capability and has disabled sophisticated US-provided missiles in Ukraine by scrambling their GPS coordinates.

ImageNav provides accurate navigation, without GPS, for a range of systems, including weapons, aircraft, and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS).

ImageNav software computes both absolute and relative navigation position updates by fusing the output of three different algorithms: stereo terrain correlation, image-based feature matching, and feature-based velocity estimation. Stereo terrain correlation collects a series of overlapping images from a flight path using an onboard electro-optical (EO) or infrared (IR) digital camera. Absolute position fixes are computed by correlating stereo elevation models from the captured imagery with stored terrain references to determine the precise geo-location. Image-based feature matching matches image features in captured imagery with stored image references. Lastly, feature-based velocity estimation tracks image features from frame to frame to constrain inertial navigation drift between position updates. ImageNav uses all three of these algorithms, running in parallel, to produce a robust, GPS-like position that is immune to jamming.

ImageNav runs entirely “at-the-edge” with minimal size, weight and power requirements. It can be integrated onto air platforms with existing sensors and processors as a software only upgrade, as software on a stand-alone processor board, or as a self-contained hardware payload (e.g. camera, processor, inertial measurement unit (IMU)).

“ImageNav is an innovative, compact solution that helps air vehicles generate accurate position fixes in the most challenging environments,” said Tom Frost, Senior VP of the Products Division at Scientific Systems. “Recent reports of successful efforts to jam weapons and aircraft that rely on GPS underscore the immediate need to develop a reliable non-GPS guidance system.”

Scientific Systems has multiple efforts underway to integrate ImageNav onto GPS-guided munitions and UASs, enabling them to operate in GPS-denied environments. A recent live weapon drop test demonstrated that ImageNav can navigate a weapon during flight, without GPS, enabling it to hit the target within the required performance envelope.

About Scientific Systems Company, Inc.

Scientific Systems Company, Inc. (SSCI) focuses on the creation of Autonomy and AI/ML-enabled capabilities to command, control, communicate with, and manage composable collections of intelligent agents, smart sensors, and autonomous platforms across the domains of space, air, land, and sea. Founded in 1990, the company invents disruptive technologies, develops revolutionary solutions, and builds trusted products for our customers’ most challenging missions. To learn more, visit ssci.com

Scientific Systems’ autonomy software successfully directed multiple Avenger Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles through the execution of an F2T2EA mission in an Air Combat-relevant scenario.

WOBURN, Mass., Jan. 16, 2024 – Scientific Systems Company, Inc. (SSCI) successfully flew multiple flight tests of its Collaborative Mission Autonomy (CMA) software running on a live General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) MQ-20 Avenger® Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle. In these November 2023 flight tests, CMA software commanded a mixed team of Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) MQ-20 platforms to execute a fully autonomous multi-vehicle Defensive Counter Air mission.

The tests used a mix of LVC platforms, sensors, and effectors to encompass all aspects of a realistic, operationally relevant F2T2EA (Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage, Assess) air combat mission, including combat air patrol, detection, identification, tracking, targeting, and engagement of multiple targets throughout multiple scenarios. Scientific Systems’ software was embedded onboard all the live, virtual, and constructive MQ-20 platforms, successfully managing the autonomous mission at the edge to compensate for communication and coordination challenges. Virtual and constructive elements of the scenario were modeled in the U.S. Air Force’s AFSIM (Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration, and Modeling software environment). In support of these November flight tests, collaborative autonomy behaviors from Scientific Systems and other organizations were integrated into and orchestrated using a GFE (government-furnished equipment) autonomy software architecture enhanced by GA-ASI.

Scientific Systems’ Collaborative Mission Autonomy (CMA) software consists of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning)-driven software for coordinating multi-vehicle decentralized mission execution. Scientific Systems’ algorithms use operator pre-mission inputs to generate tailored, coordinated flight behaviors that address mission objectives by optimizing aircraft positioning, engagement parameters, and defensive maneuvers. In-flight optimization algorithms running at the edge allow the CMA-driven uncrewed team to autonomously replan and re-coordinate their tasking and positioning, even when disconnected from their human operators, to account for dynamically changing mission constraints. In previous demonstrations, CMA handled a variety of unpredictable in-flight circumstances and contingencies such as communication outages, lost teammates, and enemy threat positioning.

“Together with GA-ASI, we’re focused on the rapid development, integration, testing, and demonstration of our collaborative autonomy behaviors,” said David “Heat” Lyons, Scientific Systems’ VP of Business Development and former F-16 Weapons Officer and combat fighter pilot. “Moreover, we’re convincingly demonstrating that our open architecture software works not just in a simulation environment but works to command a live and operationally relevant Group 5 platform like the MQ-20 Avenger, in combat representative operating conditions.”

The November flight tests are just the latest instance of Scientific Systems successfully integrating and demonstrating its collaborative mission autonomy software on third-party platforms in operational contexts of relevance to the U.S. Department of Defense. Earlier Scientific Systems test flight programs have successfully demonstrated a variety of air-to-ground, and ground support missions.

About Scientific Systems Company, Inc.

Scientific Systems Company Inc. (SSCI) focuses on the creation of Autonomy and AI/ML-enabled capabilities to command, control, communicate with, and manage composable collections of intelligent agents, smart sensors, and autonomous platforms across the domains of space, air, land, and sea. Founded in 1990, Scientific Systems invents disruptive technologies, develops revolutionary solutions, and builds trusted products for our customers’ most challenging missions. To learn more, visit ssci.com

Avenger is a registered trademark of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

Scientific Systems has been awarded a Phase II STTR under the SpaceWERX Orbital Prime Program

WOBURN, Mass., October 17 2023 – Scientific Systems, a leader in intelligent autonomous systems, announces it has been selected by SpaceWERX for an $1.5 Million STTR Phase II contract, under the SpaceWERX Orbital Prime Program.  Scientific Solutions’ vision-based solution, for US-RIPTIDE (Unknown Satellite Realtime Inspection, Pose, Tracking and IDEntification,) focuses on enabling In-space Service Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) capabilities being explored by the Department of the Air Force (DAF) and United States Space Force (USSF) through the Orbital Prime program.

Orbital Prime was created to accelerate the commercial In-Space Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) market toward a use case of Active Debris Remediation. The Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. Scientific System’s contract is in one of 20 STTR Phase II contracts awarded by SpaceWERX, each valued at $1.5M per contract, for a total of $30M awarded to the Orbital Prime Cohort, which also includes recent D2P2 SBIR awardees. Through these awards, the cohort will continue to explore ISAM capabilities and technologies relating to identifying, approaching, and servicing an object in space.  The Orbital Prime program will culminate with an on-orbit mission to demonstrate active space debris remediation, a public purpose use case intended to stimulate the market for space logistics.

“This award puts us on a path to create ‘RPO-in-a-box.’ That is, a stand-alone, modular hardware plus software product that rapidly integrates onto a servicing vehicle to ensure that vehicle approaches a client satellite safely, or the inverse, where that product provides a client vehicle the ability to ensure a satellite approaches it safely,” said Dr. Owen Brown, Vice President of Solutions Development at Scientific Systems. “We have ample confidence in this productization approach, since we applied it in the air domain with our sense-and-avoid modular product, OASES, which rapidly integrates onto unmanned aircraft to provide safety of flight capabilities. Furthermore, we are very excited to continue this work along with our academic partner, Stanford University, and their Space Rendezvous Laboratory.”

“We’re very excited to work with Scientific Systems and the Space Force on this project. By integrating our machine-learning based relative navigation approaches with unique algorithms being created by Scientific Systems, I believe we’re creating new capabilities for the rapidly developing on-orbit servicing and manufacturing ecosystem,” stated Prof. Simone D’Amico, Founder and Director of the Space Rendezvous Laboratory at Stanford University.

“This proposed solution will provide an out-of-the-box solution to enable next-generation autonomous satellite operations for close-proximity interactions like satellite inspection, a precursor to ISAM operations and debris removal. I’m really looking forward to working with  Scientific Systems and Stanford on developing and transitioning this technology,” said Dr. Sean Phillips, Deputy Technical Advisor of the Space Control Branch and the Resilient Multi-Satellite Autonomy Technical Lead at the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

 

About Scientific Systems Company, Inc. (SSCI)
Scientific Systems Company, Inc. (SSCI) focuses on the creation of Autonomy and AI/ML-enabled capabilities to command, control, communicate with, and manage composable collections of intelligent agents, smart sensors, and autonomous platforms across the domains of space, air, land, and sea. Founded in 1990, SSCI invents disruptive technologies, develops revolutionary solutions, and builds trusted products for our customers’ most challenging missions. To learn more, visit ssci.com.

 

About Stanford’s Space Rendezvous Laboratory (SLAB)

SLAB is a research and development laboratory of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University founded and led by Professor Simone D’Amico. SLAB performs fundamental and applied research at the intersection of Astrodynamics, Guidance/Navigation/Control (GN&C), Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to enable future Distributed Space Systems (DSS). DSS are space architectures including two or more agents to achieve objectives otherwise impossible or very difficult to achieve by a single spacecraft. These include, but are not limited to: spacecraft formation-flying, rendezvous and docking, swarms, fractionated space architectures, and constellations.  To learn more, visit https://slab.stanford.edu/.

 

About AFRL 

The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 11,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit www.afresearchlab.com.

 

About AFWERX

The innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory brings cutting edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. Employs approximately 325 military, civilian and contractor personnel at six hubs and sites executing an annual $1.4B budget. Since 2019, has executed 4,671 contracts worth more than $2B to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: www.afwerx.com.

Collaborative Sanitization Behavior Supports Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission set

WOBURN, Mass., August 16, 2023 – Scientific Systems Company, Inc. (SSCI) successfully demonstrated its Collaborative Sanitization Behavior aboard a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) -owned MQ-20 Avenger® Unmanned Aircraft System on July 13, 2023. This autonomous behavior, developed by Scientific Systems, empowers teams of UAVs to coordinate, share information, and execute autonomously to ensure sensor coverage over a critically defined area of interest and ultimately uninterrupted custody of a high-value target in real-time.  

Using edge teaming behaviors at the core of this component-level capability, the software autonomously re-tasks each UAV within the team to meet mission priorities. These complex algorithms enable the team to collectively prosecute established contacts to ensure tactical execution without a human-in-the-loop requirement. Warfighter decision-making is therefore achieved at an accelerated pace in an environment where milliseconds matter.

“We are thrilled to partner and work alongside GA-ASI on a world-class platform like the MQ-20 Avenger,” said David “Heat” Lyons, Scientific Systems VP of Business Development and former F-16 Weapons Officer and combat fighter pilot.   “Today’s dynamic battlespace is more complex than ever. Enabling the warfighter with teaming collaborative mission autonomy that is not only capable and recognizable but also able to handle contingencies at the edge and in real-time is absolutely critical to mission success. That is what Scientific Systems is delivering to the warfighter and we look forward to future Air-Air mission demonstrations with General Atomics.”

In support of this demonstration, Scientific Systems behaviors were integrated into and orchestrated by government-furnished equipment (GFE) autonomy core architecture enhanced by GA-ASI.

In addition to Collaborative Sanitization Behavior, Scientific Systems provides a wide array of behaviors in its Collaborative Mission Autonomy suite of products. The software adapts to mission contingencies such as mission system failures, connectivity dropout, and combat losses due to adversary action to ensure tactical execution. This same software was previously demonstrated at scales of up to 30 teaming UAVs, in experiments with 5 live and 25 virtual platforms, across a diverse set of DARPA and other OSD programs.

 

About Scientific Systems Company, Inc.

Scientific Systems Company, Inc. (SSCI) focuses on the creation of Autonomy and AI/ML-enabled capabilities to command, control, communicate with, and manage composable collections of intelligent agents, smart sensors, and autonomous platforms across the domains of space, air, land, and sea. Founded in 1990, SSCI invents disruptive technologies, develops revolutionary solutions, and builds trusted products for our customers’ most challenging missions. To learn more, visit ssci.com 

 Avenger is a registered trademark of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.