ROME — ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC of Rome was awarded a two-year, $1.25 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) to enhance the capabilities of wireless Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) device networks.
ATAK is a widely-used, feature-driven Android smartphone app that provides for military geospatial intelligence, precision targeting, navigation, data sharing and situational awareness. The SBIR contract is a Direct-to-Phase-II award that accelerates the further development, maturation, and transition of an existing technology, called PRISMTech, commercially developed by ANDRO. The new TAK plug-in is called PRISMTAK.
The TAK plug-in is part of a larger TAK family of products used by military intelligence tacticians and civilian emergency managers. ANDRO’s upgrades will specifically enable ATAK devices unprecedented mission-driven, on-demand tactical edge (also called “fog”) networking performance to enhance device-to-device connectivity, data exchanges, and situational awareness anytime and anyplace.
The work is being performed at ANDRO’s in-house software defined radio lab and is being supported by Raytheon BBN of Cambridge, Mass. and OmniMesh, Inc. of Syracuse, both subcontractors to ANDRO under the effort. PRISMTAK leverages the Omnimesh Technology Product (OTP) to solve disconnected ATAK user issues to improve situational awareness and real-time decision-making at the tactical edge.
“ANDRO is compelled by the forecasted growth of the commercial TAK user market to commit to launching a PRISMTAK Innovation Center dedicated to servicing future TAK customers and the TAK ecosystem at large,” said Dr. Andrew Drozd, president of ANDRO. “The contract will propel innovations across the TAK user domains to support military applications, including civilian emergency management and first responders. This will be accomplished by enhancing situational awareness and rapid decision-making using a device-to-device approach coupled with implementing new dynamic spectrum access and decentralized architecture paradigms.”
According to the ANDRO research team, PRISMTAK will provide disconnected ATAK operators and users with reliable and persistent access to the most critical data, regardless of where it is hosted or stored.
“The technology has implications for improving the efficacy of moving data ‘in the field’ for multiple purposes, from Cursor-on-Target to Map Imagery all with low latency,” said ANDRO Chief Information Engineer Timothy Woods, adding that such concepts have yet to be materially realized at the tactical edge. Drozd pointed out that civilian first responders and law enforcers also suffer from a loss of situational awareness when operating in challenging environments, highlighting the broad applicability of PRISMTAK for civilian use.
ANDRO provides research, engineering, and technical services to defense and commercial industries in the areas of advanced spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, software-based waveform development, cognitive software defined radio networking, multisensor data fusion, and sensor resource management. For more information on ANDRO including job placements, visit www.androcs.com.
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