SkynetSam Gussman (creative generalist), Alvin Goh (hacker), Olga Musayev (project

development), Kevin Mott (project manager)

Liaisons/Mentors: Steve Behmer, Ryan Blake, Wayne Chen# Interviewed this week: 11

6 Users, 2 Buyers, 2 Experts, 1 Competitor# interviewed total: 54

# New Blog Followers: 1, # Total: 21 Competitor, 1 Professor

Developing autonomous drones for situational awareness. Helping prevent battlefield fatalities by

pinpointing friendly and enemy positions.

Customer DiscoveryHypotheses Results Actions

Computer vision technology is currently capable of doing the detecting/recognition we need

Interviews, research, talking to experts

Partially validated. Detecting people from drone feeds can be done.

Continue researching software options to see if classifying enemy/friend/civilian is possible with computer vision technology today.

Acquisition: there are ‘critical paths’ available for getting our product into SOCOM

Interviews, sponsor engagement

Validated, multiple mechanisms for getting our product into SOCOM. We can get technology developed and into hands of users within 1 year

Talk to people involved in SBIR process, understand the requirements and more detailed hurdles we need to jump through

SOCOM is the preferred agency through which to buy our product

Interviews, research Partially validated. If we work with RRTO or another office specifically designed to innovate, can be flexible on agencies. But SOCOM is great too

Interview people at RRTO, CTTO, CTO, etc. to see if we can work with them

Experiments

Border control is a dual-use. Interview BP Agents None yet Validate hypothesis with more interviews

Next Week:

MVP

Source: Gaszczak, A., Breckon, T., & Han, J. (2011). Real-time people and vehicle detection from uav imagery. SPIE.

Detections from thermal images (people)

Detections from optical images (vehicles)

What we have now:

Envisioned product:

Hardware:DIY custom drone kitCamera (color / thermal)

Software:Open-sourced firmware

Dro

ne

ATAK Cursor On Target*

*Schema much like JSON

And

roid

plu

gin Skynet

Computer Vision (openCV) Drone navigation

Object detection

Object recognition DJI sdk / open-sourced sdk

System Architecture (draft)

Android device

MVP

Acquisition Fastest RoutesSBIR: Develop bare idea (TRL 1) to prototype (TRL 7)

Uses different pot of money (same color) required to be spent on small businesses

Phase 1 feasibility study done in 6 months, phase 2 brings beyond prototype, phase 3 (not covered) is commercialization and scaling up

Phase 2 can be initiated even 10yrs later, by any agency, without competition

Timeline: 1 month to hear back; 2-4 months to set up contract; 6 months of funding

S&T Process: Develop idea/prototype (TRL 3/4) to product (TRL 9)

Uses existing capability gaps posted on fedbizops

Evaluated by operators working with PM and an engineer

Benefits from engaging with operators and PMs ahead of time

Timeline: From close of BAA, 2 months to hear back, 4-8 months to set up contract, 2 years of funding

Find existing contract: Get money to buy stuff

Find company that has on-going contract with military; any other agency can give money

May be limited to purchasing materials and paying engineers

Timeline: After signing contract with company, can get money from agency same week, funding only for duration of the existing contract

Deployment Timeline ComparisonSBIR

S&T

ExistingContract

Notific

ation

Fundin

g

Fundin

g

Expire

s

1 Year (6 months funding)

Notific

ation

Fundin

g

Fundin

g

Expire

s

Fundin

g

Contra

ct Funding Expires

34 Months(2 Years funding)

Max 2 Years(19 Months, 3 Weeks Funding)

6 121

102 34

2, +1 week 24

Route 1: S&T Process-- Prototype to Product

BAA for existing gap

White Paper

White Paper

White Paper

S&T PM(TBD)

S&T PM’s Group of Operators

Other operators who talk to operators in PM’s group

Bureaucracy line

Other operators who talk to operators in PM’s group

S&T “Council”: S&T PMs +

Director Tony Davis

Engineer Steve D.

Proposal

Contract Negotiations between business and PM: Statement of Work (COW); Contracts Data Requirements List (CDROLS)

Step 1: find gap on fedbizops + submit whitepaper

Step 2: All whitepapers get evaluated by operators and engineer

Step 3: S&T PM brings selected white paper to “council” of PMs. They choose which projects to prioritize and fund.

Step 4+5: Submit proposal and negotiate deliverables (CDROLS) and what you will do (COW)

Step 0: “Free flowing” communication with operators and PM to show off product and get selected and prioritized

Route 2: SBIR- Small Business Innovation Research

SBIR Topic Area

Proposal Proposal Proposal

SBIR PM Sean M.

SBIR PM’s Group of Operators

(all components)

Other operators who talk to operators in PM’s group

Other operators who talk to operators in PM’s group

Engineers

Proposal Contract for Phase 1 Feasibility study

Step 1: find idea on SBIR topic area

Step 2: SBIR PM reaches out to whoever submitted topic; they evaluate

Step 3: SBIR PM brings selected white paper to “council” of PMs.

Step 4+5: Phase 1 feasibility study. If successful, can go to phase 2

Step 0: “Free flowing” communication with operators and PMs to influence process

SBIR Council: S&T Director Tony Davis + PMs

Get to phase 2 sole source... at any point... with any agency

Route 3: Find existing contract

Step 1: Find company that has existing contract with any agency

Step 2: Contract with company

Step 3: Get money through Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request

Ex. Stanford contracts with company which contracts with DIUX which lets SOCOM give us $10k for development.

Mission Model Canvas- Fly autonomously on route- Object detection, recognition, classification - Identifying and tracking friendlies, enemies, civilians- Integration with ATAK

- SOF (green beret, ranger, SEALS)

- SOCOM, RRTO, CTTSO, JCTD, CTO

- Programmable drone manufacturers (eg: Solo)

- ATAK Program

- Neurala (or other computer vision firm)

-Stanford Computer Vision Lab

Tactical operators - SOF (SF, Ranger, SEALS, MARSOC/Recon, drone operators)

Private sector and academic partners (Neurala, drone manufacturer, Stanford lab)

ATAK Program Manager

SOCOM Small UAV S&T/Acquisition Program Managers

Dual Use: Border Patrol

- Keep track of friendly, potential hostile and neutral actors/equipment automatically

- New contracts and revenue streams- Opportunities for tech development

-Added value to current program/technology

-Cost effective, agile and quick method of filling capability gaps

- Low-cost detection of movement and people at border

-Improved situational awareness for small units in combat

-reduce workload for tactical operators and feed-monitoring operators

-decrease strain on other traditional aerial assets

Options:1). S&T Process

2). SBIR Process

3). Find existing contract (short term funding)

Fixed:- Equipment - drones, development toolkits- Software design & engineering

Variable:- Costs of maintenance, updates, and training

-Demonstrate utility- gain support from senior personnel-Show opportunities for new revenue streams-Add utility to current program of record to increase adoption-Provide low cost product with new capability filling gapSaboteur - competition within SOCOM PMs

Beneficiaries

Mission AchievementMission Budget/Costs

Buy-In/Support

Deployment

Value PropositionKey Activities

Key Resources

Key Partners

- Programmable Drone

- Computer vision SDK (preferably neurala)

- ATAK API + source code

__= New

SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas

- Image recognition software applied on video feed- Aerial perspective

Customer Jobs

Monitor the border for suspicious

activity- border area is too large, unable to ensure full coverage- Impossible to look at the whole border 24/7

Border Patrol

Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

- Quickly respond to suspicious activity - Survey more area without needing more men

- utilize low-cost drone swarm to increase border coverage

- distributed autonomous drones ensure high refresh rate across the whole border

Products& Services

Drone with visual recognition

software

SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas

- Knowing the locations of friends/enemies/civilians- Reduced ambiguity - autonomous assessment of aerial perspectives and video feed Custome

r JobsShoot bad

guys without getting shot- Cognitive overload from

existing tools-Manpower losses - Hassle of systems not communicating

SOF Elements (combat)

Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

-Increased situational awareness on the battlefield- Reconnaissance of inaccessible places

- Integrate with current systems that soldiers are familiar with- Frees up another soldier

Products& ServicesSituationally

awaredrone with visual

interface

SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas

- Automatic patrol- Facial Recognition of people identified in vicinity- Automatic threat detection to flag security threats Custome

r JobsForce protectionDay-to-day security patrols

are manpower intensive

Difficult to be always aware of surroundings

SOF Elements (non-combat)

Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

- Reliable 24/7 Security Awareness- Knowing who lives around you, and who doesn’t- Ability to respond quickly to threats

- Swarms of drones can replace patrol units

-24/7 situation awareness of surroundings

Products& ServicesSituationally

awareautonomous

drones

SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas

- Access into SOCOM acquisitions

- building company’s presence in military

Customer Jobs

Make more moneyBuild customer relationships

- Difficult to get large contracts, technology still maturing, only have limited consumer market share

Commercial Partners

Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

-New revenue stream-Potential long term partnership

- Contracts with military, willing and eager to adopt new technology (early adopters) even if tech is not fully matured

Products& ServicesPartnership /

contract

SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas

- Integrating drone camera feed enhanced with image recognition

- augmenting ATAK interface with image processing

Customer Jobs

Manage ATAKSystem under

cost- Proprietary technologythat does not talk to othertech- low adoption rate, ‘fancy new toy’ that’s not used much

ATAK Project Manager

Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

-Increased value to ATAK program

- Easy integration with ATAK- Promote culture of open-source- improving receptiveness to ATAK

Products& ServicesAutonomous

drone with live video feed

integrated with ATAK

SkyNet: Value Proposition Canvas

-Image recognition software first of its kind in the military

- tool could potentially be applied across platforms (as a software plugin)

Customer Jobs

Manage ProgramsFill gaps

- Tech is new and recognitionof potential enemy may triggerblowback- new technology always too expensive, sometimes they don’t get used after purchasing

SOCOM Small UAS PM

Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

- Provides new tool that existing programs don’t provide - Potential to scale

-Retain man-in-the-loop, test software during training stateside and slowly scale to overseas.- Maintain low costs by utilizing COTS, consistently engage user feedback at all stages of development.

Products& Services

COTS Drone with visual recognition

software

Backup Slides: Acquisition Process

Saboteurs + Other DangersProject Manager for Personal Reconnaissance Devices

There is a jurisdictional fight between the PMs for Personal Reconnaissance Devices and Small UAV Projects

Raven ProgramSmall fixed wing reconnaissance drones, the Raven chief amongst them, stand to lose both funding a prestige

Ourselves Any misclassification of a civilian that leads to injury is likely to completely derail the project.

‘Personal’ saboteursThis week we learned about an angry secretary who almost killed a project’s funding.

Tactical Beneficiary Archetype

Special Forces - they enter an area for few months and live with locals for a while, train them, advise them on combat.

Drone Operators - they pilot and monitor drone feeds to conduct targeted air strikes and protect troops on mission

Rangers - they enter a specific area, conduct a raid, and exit.

JTAC - responsible for calling and targeting air support.

Sergeant of the Guard (SOG) - they are responsible for force protection.

Value Proposition BriefProblem Existing solutions Our solution

Identify and locate hostile and neutral actors/equipment

Plot on a mapDrop enemy icons on JCR/BFTSoldier awareness

Real-time updates/tracking of persons of interest through computer vision

Special Forces monitoring of allied force

High level drone feed fed to SF, but limited 2-way communication.ATAK may show locations of allied force

Drone extends communication networks and allow audio and video communicationMonitors locations of allied force to prevent airstrike casualties

Collateral Damage Soldiers mark out potential CD on mapsGround force commander's’ judgementDrone operator in the US runs algorithm to determine CD from potential airstrike

Drone uses existing database to mark civilian buildings on ATAK map; Drone identifies potential civilians and marks location in ATAK using Computer Vision

Fratricide, especially when calling in airstrikes and artillery

ATAK, GPS in radios, 9-line call format, strobe lights on uniforms: all identify friendly locations

Low-flying drone detects friendly locations and conveys to JTAC and pilot. Could also run algorithms determining risk of fratricide; AR shows soldiers locations of friendlies

Force protection duties (guard) are manpower intensive

Patrols and Soldiers at static positions are a staple in force protection duties

Autonomous drone would circle compound and recognize dangers. Can form fleet of autonomous drones to complement patrol duties