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Athena AI Successfully Integrates with Tomahawk Robotics’ KxM Edge Processor

Tomahawk Robotics and Athena AI have strengthened their partnership by deploying Athena AI’s latest Vision pipeline onto Tomahawk Robotics’ KxM edge processor, providing military personnel AI-enhanced decision support aids at the tactical edge.

Tomahawk Robotics’ KxM gives users the ability to ingest large amounts of data and process it at the edge using the latest AI algorithms.  This latest collaboration enables the use of the most recent release of Athena AI’s suite with a range of both ground and airborne unmanned systems. Updates include quantization-aware training for increases in AI speed of 2-3x, latest datasets pertinent to US Military organizations, and detection filtering algorithms to reduce false positives.

Athena AI has performed significant thermal and software integration testing on the KxM Edge Processor and various unmanned systems by leveraging Tomahawk Robotics’ Kinesis software. Kinesis was built to bridge both the AI and unmanned systems ecosystems. Until the advent of Kinesis there had been no practical way to quickly apply AI across sensors from multiple unmanned platforms and use AI with the simplicity of an appliance. Managing Director of Athena AI, Stephen Bornstein, explains: “What we have with Tomahawk Robotics is the ideal use case for our products. Tomahawk Robotics’ Kinesis ecosystem provides the network and user interface, and we plug our AI straight into that for enhanced decision support.”

This technology will improve situational awareness and confidence for military personnel when faced with challenging tasks or robotics applications.  “This collaboration addresses many of the goals identified by initiatives such as AI for Small Unit Maneuver (AISUM), and we are excited that we will be highlighting these capabilities with our customers over the coming weeks and months,” says Tomahawk Robotics CEO, Brad Truesdell.

About Athena AI  

Athena AI provides military forces with unmatched decision support capability utilizing state of the art AI vision toolbox, geospatial AI for terrain analysis, advanced effects modelling and an integrated Rules of Engagement (ROE) framework.

Learn more at  https://athenadefence.ai 

Tomahawk Robotics awarded $4,132,540 contract with United States Marine Corps

Melbourne, FL – June 10, 2021 – Tomahawk Robotics is pleased to announce the award of the Radio Agile Integrated Device (RAID) Program through the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL).

Program activities and deliveries will take place over the course of 2021 and 2022. The RAID Program provides a fully integrated common control and communications solution for both air and ground unmanned systems. It will enable universal robotic control of legacy Program of Record (PoR) systems as well as next generation unmanned systems, sensors, and payloads for dismounted Marine Corps units.

Universal robotic control technologies provide infantry units significant improvements in situational awareness, mobility and lethality and ultimately ready Marines for the challenges of tomorrow’s battlefields. The RAID Program leverages Tomahawk Robotics’ product family, including the Kinesis universal robotic control software, Grip, KxM and MxC-Mini.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to provide universal robotic control technologies for the Marine Corps and build on the investments of other DOD units and allies. The Marine Corps is doing superb work preparing for the multi-domain battlefield of the future; you see this reflected in their force structure, doctrine, and technology adoption. We are proud to be part of this program and to support their efforts to achieve effective Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T),” said Brad Truesdell, CEO of Tomahawk Robotics.  

Samsung Partnership 

Samsung Electronics and Tomahawk Robotics, an unmanned common control systems company, are partnering to provide a combined offering of the Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition smartphone and Tomahawk Robotics’ Kinesis. Kinesis is a highly intuitive, versatile, and secure common control system for mobile, field-deployed robotic platforms.

To realize the full potential of the military’s use of tactical robotic systems, it is imperative that operators control robotic platforms from an intuitive, affordable, highly portable ground control station. Samsung’s Galaxy S20 TE combined with Tomahawk Robotics’ Kinesis universal command and control software provides this capability for the DOD’s major robotics programs of record, such as SMET, CRS-I, and SRR.

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Samsung,” said Brad Truesdell, CEO, Tomahawk Robotics. “Samsung and Tomahawk Robotics combined offering is extremely well-positioned as a low SWAP, low-cost solution for robotic command and control, that brings immediate interoperability with a number of major military robotic PORs.”

Building on the demonstrated desire of the US DOD to leverage commercial solutions for the tactical space as evidenced by the Nett Warrior program, Tomahawk and Samsung are uniquely positioned to provide the lightest weight, most capable universal command and control solution for tactical unmanned systems. As a COTS solution, Kinesis running on Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition smartphones deliver faster fielding and more flexibility for warfighters – a solution that provides front line troops with greater situational awareness and intuitive, common control in the most uncontrollable situations.

Kinesis Software Update

Tomahawk Robotics has just released Kinesis version 21.06. 

Supported Hardware

Samsung Galaxy S20 TE

Samsung Galaxy S9 TE

Persistent Systems MPU5

MxC-M

Grip Controller

Mimic Controller

Microsoft Xbox Controller

Software Components

MxC AVR Firmware

Mimic Firmware

Kinesis Service

Kinesis UI

Improvements

Added licensing levels Lite, Core, Pro

Support for Grip Controller

Replaced network infrastructure with DDS

UxV universal pairing interface introduced

Native Cursor on Target (CoT) support for points of interest transfer between Kinesis and TAK

Software updates pushed from Kinesis EUD for Kinesis application, MxC firmware, and Grip firmware

More intuitive and consistent control mapping across unmanned systems

Updated, cleaner user interface

Improved user experience on the the Persistent Systems MPU5 RDC

Significant robustness and stability enhancements

Simulator performance improvements

Mission Module support for KxM network integration

We've Moved!

We are excited to announce we have moved into a larger facility to better accommodate our expanding team and business. At Tomahawk Robotics we are reminded of the hard work and collaboration that went in to make this space happen and are excited for the future of building great products to meet our customer's needs.

Tomahawk Robotics brings Kinesis "universal robotic controller" app for unmanned systems to MPU5 networked radio.

Persistent Systems

Tomahawk Robotics, developer of the Kinesis common control system, joins other industry partners using Persistent’s Wave Relay® mobile ad hoc network and associated hardware.

NEW YORK, New York – January 19, 2021 – Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”) announced today that Tomahawk Robotics has joined the Wave Relay® Ecosystem, a rapidly growing industry alliance of unmanned system and sensor companies that use Persistent’s Wave Relay® mobile ad hoc network (MANET) as their preferred network.

As part of this agreement, Tomahawk Robotics will make its Kinesis, an Android™-based common control system for leading unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned aircraft systems, available for Persistent’s MPU5 Android™-based MANET radio and Rugged Display and Controller (RDC).

“Basically, this provides a ‘universal controller’ for unmanned systems that resides on the MPU5 and is accessed with the RDC, both of which the dismounted warfighter would already be carrying,” said Brian Mcdonald, Field Operations Director at Persistent Systems. “So, you eliminate the weight and cost of extra hardware, and you bring Tomahawk’s all-encompassing Kinesis capability to everyone on the tactical team, not just the UxV operator.”

The MPU5 runs the Android operating system, enabling apps like Kinesis to be loaded directly onto the radio, while the RDC provides the touch screen, joysticks, and gamepad buttons in a form factor the size of a commercial smartphone.

“With the intuitive, easy-to-use Kinesis, you can operate any unmanned system on the land, in the air or on the water,” said Matt Summer, CTO at Tomahawk Robotics. “You don’t need specialized controllers or training for each individual system.”

Should the mission require, as in the case of finely manipulating the arm of a bomb disposal robot, the MPU5 and RDC can operate seamlessly with the Tomahawk Robotics Mimic spatial controller.

“We look forward to collaborating with Tomahawk Robotics because, together, we are bringing the warfighter incredible capabilities in a small, lightweight package, making it easier on the user and more affordable for the customer,” Mcdonald said.

About Persistent Systems, LLC

Headquartered in New York City since 2007, Persistent Systems, LLC is a global communications technology company that develops and manufactures a patented and secure Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET) system: Wave Relay®. Wave Relay® transmits and receives data, video, voice and other applications under the most difficult conditions. Their suite of products is utilized in Commercial, Military, Government, Industrial, Agriculture, Robotics, and Unmanned Systems markets. Please visit http://www.persistentsystems.com to learn more. Follow Persistent Systems on Twitter to get updates on the latest developments @pswaverelay.

For any questions or feedback please email us at marketing@tomahawkrobotics.com.