Centeye, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: DTRA212-003
Centeye, Inc. — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Defense.
Phase I SBIR feasibility signal
- Phase I awards fund proof-of-concept work. For capture teams, they mark early interest from Department of Defense in a technical approach.
- Watch for Phase II follow-ons from the same firm/topic family — that conversion path is where budgets and transition pressure rise.
- Obligated amount $166,022. Cross-check similar awards in the same agency and technology tags for going-rate context.
- Topic code DTRA212-003 links this award to a solicitation family — search the same topic stem for incumbents and recompete timing.
- Amount
- $166,022
- Agency
- Department of Defense · Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Topic
- DTRA212-003
- Solicitation
- 21.2
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- DC
- Period
- 2022-04-21 → 2022-11-20
Description
Centeye, with subcontractor support from Airgility, proposes a Phase 1 effort to develop a marsupial system in which a sUAS "mother ship" carries up to five autonomous nano air vehicles (NAVs) to an area of interest to perform a remote chemical sampling mission in a GPS-denied environment. For Phase 1, multiple concepts for addressing navigation of NAVs between the mother ship and the chemical sampling site and for approaching the mother ship for capture/docking will be explored through open- and close-loop flight testing. This includes incorporating possible methods by which a system operator may designate target locations for sampling. Concepts for implementing transport, launch, and capture of NAVs by the mother ship will also be explored. We anticipate using a collision resilient Centeye NAV platform with on-board autonomy and obstacle negotiation developed in previous efforts. We will build the autonomy stack to have a transparent and open architecture to allow modification by the customer. This work will be performed to benefit both civil and military applications.