Palladyne gets contract from AFRL to migrate Pilot software to AI chip set

Palladyne AI (PDYN) announced that the Company has been awarded a new contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory AFRL to migrate the Palladyne Pilot AI software platform to next-generation, U.S. made AI computing chipsets. This project will take place over a 26-month period beginning in early 2025. The Palladyne Pilot software platform is based on the Closed Loop Ubiquitous Tasking and Control of Heterogeneous Exploring Sensors CLUTCHES framework, which defines a novel AI structure that combines upstream multi-sensor fusion with adaptive real-time sensor management on individual unmanned aerial vehicle UAV platforms to facilitate shared situational awareness. Pilot has been designed to enable a network of collaborating unmanned systems and multi-modal sensors that self-orchestrate to provide superior capabilities for applications including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance . This real-time sensor management requires a closed-loop system, a key feature of the Pilot platform. “Our development work with AFRL on the Pilot AI software platform has been critical to evolving the technology to benefit our DoD customers,” said Ben Wolff, CEO, Palladyne AI. “By evolving Pilot to be able to operate on these next-generation AI chipsets, in addition to the AI chipsets from Nvidia (NVDA) and Qualcomm (QCOM) that we are already operating on, we believe we will have the opportunity to deliver the benefits of our enhanced autonomy Pilot platform to the vast majority of small drone platforms that will be deployed in the coming years.”