TAU TECHNOLOGIES LLC — Department of Defense STTR Phase II: MDA20-T003
TAU TECHNOLOGIES LLC — STTR Phase II award from Department of Defense.
Phase II STTR prototype / development signal
- Phase II is where Department of Defense funds deeper R&D after feasibility. Incumbents with Phase II history are serious competitors on adjacent topics.
- Use this award as past-performance context and to map customer organizations for STRATFI/TACFI-style transition planning.
- Obligated amount $1,471,342 is consistent with substantial Phase II-scale effort; compare to related awards from the same agency.
- Topic code MDA20-T003 links this award to a solicitation family — search the same topic stem for incumbents and recompete timing.
- Amount
- $1,471,342
- Agency
- Department of Defense · Missile Defense Agency
- Program / Phase
- STTR · Phase II
- Topic
- MDA20-T003
- Solicitation
- 20.C
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- NM
- Period
- 2022-06-30 → 2024-06-29
Description
Proposal seeks to build and test a Persistent wide field-of-view (FOV) infrared (IR) camera array for detecting and tracking dim objects. The optical design is based on the successful Tau PANDORA (visible) array systems, now in use for tracking low earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites. In Phase I, propose to collect daytime shortwave IR (SWIR) imagery on satellites with a single camera. Analyzed this data to demonstrate quantitatively the successful use of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to identify satellites distinct from the clutter. Tau proposes to construct a prototype sensor array to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing Neuromorphic Machine Learning (NML). The primary research in Phase II will be directed towards developing an effective training algorithm of Spiking Neural Networks (SNN), an advanced Neuromorphic network, while we continue on present path by improving the Generation II Neural Networks previously investigated. Approved for Public Release | 22-MDA-11215 (27 Jul 22)