PICOGRID, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF211-CSO1

Description

Picogrid is a hardware and software platform for remote surveillance. The system is a low-cost, distributed, ground sensor platform that complements more costly and less persistent air and space surveillance methods, such as E-8C JSTARS and UAVs. The Air Force would benefit from the system on multiple counts, including expedited decision making, reduction of labor costs and personnel exposure to the conflict zones, easy integration with the existing Command and Control systems, as well as cost savings through the use of commercially available components.  Hardware: Field hardware supporting a variety of sensors, serving as the warfighter's “eye on the ground” Support for most commercial sensors (visual cameras, infrared cameras, radio receivers, etc.) Satellite communication is the primary network mechanism: Designed to fully leverage the benefits of SpaceX’s Starlink, while using geostationary satellites (i.e., Viasat) and mesh networks for redundancy Self-contained solar power system designed for 10-year deployment life Onboard edge computing Built-in telescoping tower for sensor deployment Software:  Real-time streaming and analysis of video and other sensor data  Front-end interface visualizes the data in the geospatial context Highly-secure and scalable infrastructure Artificial intelligence for live data labelling and alerts (people, vehicles, animals) & integration with external model providers (e.g. weapon detection) Open APIs built for easy integration: it can be used as an end-to-end platform, but also disaggregated into its individual software and hardware components