California-based Shield AI announced on April 4 that it has acquired Australian company Sentient Vision Systems and will form Shield AI Australia as part of its efforts to expand the country's market.
The move comes after the two companies strengthened their cooperation. In August 2023, the two artificial intelligence companies announced the joint development of his ViDAR-enabled wide-area video payload called Sentient Observer, which both companies plan to fly this year.
Sentient's ViDAR is an artificial intelligence-powered electro-optical/infrared sensor that can detect and classify targets in collected images.
Sentient told Defense News the following month that the company was working on integrating ViDAR with Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy package to improve performance.
“The Department of Defense wants an all-seeing eye across tens of thousands of square miles, 24/7, without the need for GPS or communications links. For Shield AI, Sentient Observer is the final piece of that puzzle.” Brandon Tseng, president and co-founder of Shield AI, said in the companies' announcement.
He added that “the Department of Defense can begin to augment and replace legacy solutions with decentralized, low-cost, low-risk solutions that don't go bankrupt even if an aircraft is shot down.” He pointed out that there is a possibility of combining ViDAR and shield AI ViDAR. Hivemind AI pilots enable fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles to work together to patrol areas.
While both ViDAR and Hivemind are platform agnostic, Shield AI said in a statement that it plans to acquire a V-BAT Group 3 unmanned aerial vehicle in 2021 and apply the ViDAR and Hivemind combo to this vertical takeoff drone. Ta.
“What caught our attention about Shield AI is that they are the only company in the world with operational pilots in AI, so they can actually deliver the AI technology workstreams highlighted in Pillar 2 of AUKUS. “We have the technical expertise and maturity to do so,” said Sentient CEO. Mark Palmer mentioned Australian, British and American nuclear submarines in his statement. The second pillar is collaboration focused on cutting-edge technology.
Under AUKUS Pillar 2, traditional barriers to technology sharing between these three countries will be reduced, and autonomy, unmanned, quantum computing, hypersonics and other demands will be addressed to support operations in the Indo-Pacific. The three countries will be able to jointly develop or sell advanced technology. region.
In response to questions from Defense News, the companies did not disclose the purchase price.
Megan Eckstein is a naval warfare reporter for Defense News. She has reported military news since 2009, focusing on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs, and budgets. Geographically she reports from four fleets and she is happiest when she is filing articles from ships. Megan is a graduate of the University of Maryland.
