FATHOM5 CORP — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: N22A-T026

Description

The maintenance strategy of the Navy and Marine Corps is transforming from time-based and reactive maintenance to condition-based maintenance. The goals of this transition are to achieve increased asset availability and to lower maintenance costs by decreasing unplanned downtime through optimally planned condition-based scheduling.   Recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) have conclusively demonstrated in laboratory testing and field deployments that AI/ML methods of statistical reasoning on machine parameters of vibration, temperature, and current can predict machine maintenance requirements. Current deployment of these predictive capabilities requires significant investments in powerful computational infrastructure, precision sensing, and advanced software analyzing the sensor readings. Today’s technology options for each layer in this system are prohibitively expensive for broad deployment of the capability. Given that maintenance cost increases are the fundamental challenge to readiness cited by CNO and other leaders, the path to achieving broadly available machine health, usage, and monitoring (HUM) cannot be implemented on prohibitively expensive hardware that is currently available. The Navy and Marine Corps need a technology integration program that delivers a low-cost, rugged device that allows for precision placement on the physical part of the system most likely to give failure mode indicative readings in order to achieve these HUM outcomes at a fraction of the current market price.   The desired technology described in the government’s solicitation is a complex integration of four disciplines: • Software technology – Artificial intelligence/machine learning tailored to provide predictive analytics and structured to host native analytics with easy integration of third-party analytics • Hardware technology – Low cost and highly miniaturized form factor that is electromagnetically and structurally capable of enduring the stresses of an under-hood vehicle environment • Communications technology – Compliant with industrial standards for communication (i.e., CAN bus and IEEE 1451) yet carrying data beyond the protocols’ included fields to now include the results of edge computed health and performance • Cybersecurity technology – Systematically mounting computation and analytics onto machinery dramatically increases the number processors in a tactical system and will require the extension of a cybersecurity framework to ensure the resultant information can be trusted and verified.   Fathom5 proposes that the Phase 1 Base and Phase 1 Option efforts outlined in the following Technical Volume are critical steps to move the Navy and Marine Corps towards an affordable device that can support the maintenance optimization the naval services so urgently need .