CCAT San Diego Provides Awards
The Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT) in San Diego, California announced that the Center has awarded business development grants and business support awards to six companies that have engineered technologies for use in specific military robotic platforms.
In conjunction with the Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Robotics Program at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego (SSC San Diego), the CCAT program conducted a nationwide solicitation for proven robotic payload technologies that could be used to bolster the effectiveness of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) currently in use by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq. The six companies awarded funding and business services are:
AETC, San Diego, CA, was granted a $75,000 product development award, a market study and commercialization planning assistance for their acoustic array technology that improves situational awareness of UGVs. This technology utilizes both sound and ultrasound to detect and precisely locate many activities that are otherwise undetectable by the war fighter.
A $75,000 product development grant, a market study and commercialization planning assistance was also awarded to DigiVison of San Diego. DigiVision is developing a high performance video contrast-enhancement system that provides improved video for use in detecting either allied entities or possible threats.
A market study and commercialization planning assistance was awarded to Advanced Scientific Concepts Inc. (ASC) of Santa Barbara, CA for their high speed, eye safe, flash LADAR for robotic navigation and collision avoidance. ASC’s rugged flash LADAR sensor system is capable of capturing full 3-D image frames with a single, short duration laser pulse.
i-Robot of Burlington, Massachusetts was awarded a two-part product development award totaling $125,000 for its enhanced, visually stabilized odometry system for UGVs and for its development of an integrated processor housing to enable inclusion of an existing Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) payload technology currently used by SSC San Diego. Combined, these capabilities will enable the UGV to negotiate through rooms and bunkers autonomously.
The Birddog robotics tracking technology developed by SAIC of Englewood, CO also received a $75,000 product development award. The Birddog system enables unmanned systems to reason about the actions, intentions, and reactions of the deployment team’s humans and respond appropriately.
The Domestic Security Division of San Diego-based Space Micro, Inc. was awarded a $75,000 product development award, as well as commercialization planning assistance and a market study for its Radiological Source Identifier and Tracking (RADSITE™) technology. RADSITE is designed to detect and locate multiple radiation fields in under one minute.
Funded by the Department of Defense (DoD), the CCAT program identifies, evaluates, funds and fast-tracks the development of technologies for use by the DoD, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and first responders.
About
The Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT) is supported by Congress and funded by the Department of Defense as a public-private collaborative partnership among academia, industry, and government. With Centers located at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) and San Diego State University (SDSU), the CCAT program provides funding and business development support services to small entrepreneurs, small businesses, and government/university research scientists that have developed technology for use in the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, as well as the commercial marketplace. Additional program partners include the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering, von Liebig Center, CONNECT and The Security Network with support from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego. For more information about CCAT, visit http://www.ccatsocal.org.
