Multi-INT Sensor Fusion & AI at the Tactical Edge
If you ever want to see Murphy’s Law spring into action, just mention 2-words: “Live. Demo.” Those of you who have managed one, know what I’m talking about. Last month, Sigma Defense was invited to participate in the USSOCOM Technical Experimentation 23-1 in Avon Park, Florida with our partners from Aires Defense, Klas Government, Striveworks, Ovzon and AWS to conduct a live demonstration of AI at the edge, integrating video and infrared sensors into our tactical relay system to detect people in military uniforms. It was a great idea for a demo, until no one showed up in uniform. Fortunately, we had a few things working in our favor. Our software-defined Multi-INT Sensor Fusion system is agile, so our on-site engineer was able reconfigure the program through DevSecOps, train the model in the cloud and deploy it to back to the device in a very short period. By the time we ran our demonstration, the system was now modified to identify people in hats, vice people in camo fatigues. Much to the dismay of Mr. Murphy, the demonstration was a tremendous success.
It’s particularly relevant that this demonstration was for the Special Operations Command, as there’s a common adage within this community, “Plan for the worst, expect the best.” The software defined foundation of the Sigma Defense platform is critical to providing the flexibility our customers need. Reconfiguring the AI algorithm quickly is one facet of the flexible nature of this platform. While we conducted this experiment with video and infrared sensors, there are dozens of sensors that can be integrated from airborne, ground, nautical, satellite and cyber feeds to aggregate, analyze and act in real-time or near real-time for better intelligence and faster decision making. During the experiment not only did we modify algorithms, but we also seamlessly integrated a long-range high-bandwidth video feed from L3 on the fly.
JADC2: “Sense, Make Sense and Act”
This event was particularly rewarding for me and the Sigma Defense team. We are truly breaking new ground with the integration of AI, analytics, and sensor fusion at the tactical edge to deliver “sense, make sense and act” capabilities for JADC2. Not only were we able to showcase our ability to deliver sensor fusion and edge analytics, but we also proved that we could adapt quickly to a rapidly changing environment. There is much work to be done, but I am very excited at the prospect of what we will be able to deliver to our men and women of the armed forces.
I’m grateful to be working with an amazing team delivering leading edge technology. But in that instance, I was especially grateful for those who wore hats. To them I say, “Hats off to you!” or more appropriately, “Hats on!” Learn more about our Multi-INT Sensor Fusion solution in our latest brief.
