PATHFINDER SYSTEMS INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N192-088

Description

The Navy, along with other military forces, is transitioning to operations which increasingly rely on the integration of unmanned air systems. Pathfinder Systems Inc. proposes an affordable, fully passive collision avoidance system to be installed on-board both manned and unmanned aircraft to improve airspace management, including the reduction of labor-intensive practices. 360° continuous video coverage is coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to identify aircraft and other hazards to navigation. DACAS ( Demonstration of Automated Collision Avoidance System) identifies potential collisions through the implementation of high-resolution miniature cameras, and Deep Neural Networks trained to detect and track objects, then gives real-time data on board the flight. We currently have a flight-tested working prototype that was accepted by the US Air Force in March 2019. The efforts from this $2.7M investment from the USAF along with our own $500K IRAD investment will both aid in furthering this system. Because of the development effort invested in this prototype, we have eliminated a significant amount of the technical risk associated with this technology and have a solid foundation to move forward with a solution that meets the US Navy’s specific needs.