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20 May 20. U.S squeezes Huawei on chip design. The Commerce Department squeezed U.S. export controls on Chinese telecommunications gear supplier Huawei’s manufacturing supply chain on May 15. The agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said it would limit the company’s ability to use U.S. semiconductor companies’ design and software outside of the U.S.
BIS said it was changing its foreign produced, direct product rules specifically targeting Huawei’s acquisition of U.S. software and technology to make semiconductors overseas.
In a related May 15 announcement, the Commerce Department also extended the period U.S. telecommunications companies currently operating with Huawei gear in their networks by 90 days have to get rid of it, allowing them until Aug. 13.
In a May 15 background briefing call with reporters, a senior Commerce Department official said the new date would allow U.S. carriers “to continue to operate while transitioning” to alternative suppliers not on its restricted list.
In the last several years, rural U.S. telecommunications providers have been drawn to Huawei gear because of its relatively low costs.
The federal government has been wary of Huawei’s telecommunication gear, particularly its cheap, available 5G wireless equipment, as a potential national security threat, since the company is legally tied to the Chinese government. The U.S. has banned Huawei products from U.S. government networks, altered rules to prevent telecom carriers using the company’s equipment from receiving grants to help build rural broadband infrastructure.
In 2019, the U.S. curtailed Huawei’s ability to buy parts and components from American companies in the future. Those domestic moves have been paired with a diplomatic offensive abroad, with the U.S. urging allied countries to adopt similar policies and freeze Huawei out of contract negotiations for new 5G networks.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) praised today’s move in a statement, “The United States needs to strangle Huawei. Modern wars are fought with semiconductors, and we were letting Huawei use our American designs,” Sasse said. “This is pretty simple: chip companies that depend on American technology can’t jump into bed with the Chinese Communist Party. This rule is long overdue.”
In the May 15 call, a senior State Department official said Huawei has been complicit and even “bragged” about its collaboration with the Chinese government’s armed forces, particularly on its 5G technologies, to further the country’s ambitions.
Despite the domestic controls, BIS said in its May 15 statement that Huawei, has continued to use U.S. semiconductor software and technology to make semiconductors at foundries abroad, through its HiSilicon affiliate.
“This is not how a responsible global corporate citizen behaves,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said. “We must amend our rules exploited by Huawei and HiSilicon and prevent U.S. technologies from enabling malign activities contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.” (Source: Defense Systems)
20 May 20. US Army eyes Kessel Run model to boost software capabilities. The US Army is looking to bolster its in-house software capabilities by building software factories like Kessel Run, the Air Force’s agile software development program.
The Army’s chief technology officer, William Robinson, said the service is planning to emulate the Air Force’s model as part of a larger effort to better prepare soldiers to manipulate cloud-based applications, including those that perform data analytics, in the field.
“We’re going to have to move computing to the edge, and as we move computing to the edge it’s able to process the data at the locations to be able to synthesize the information and then roll up only the critical component up inside of the big data platforms,” including multi-domain operations, Robinson said May 19 during a virtual event on C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Intelligence) put on by AFCEA International and George Mason University.
Robinson said soldiers on the ground will have to be able to manipulate application programming interfaces (API) to connect the application to the network to the weapons platform and stay ahead of the information curve that commanders need to do analytics with AI and machine learning.
The Kessel Run software factory, which is one of several across the Air Force, gained acclaim in recent years for its ability to quickly develop and deploy software solutions just like commercial companies.
And with that head start, the Army has a veritable blueprint to “have uniform software developers and software engineers designing and being able to run out iterative capabilities across the Army,” Robinson said.
Robinson didn’t elaborate on the service’s exact plans for creating a software factory but said it hinges on the Army’s cloud initiatives, driven by the newly stood up enterprise cloud office, and the future focus would be on mission command applications and platforms. (Source: Defense Systems)
20 May 20. Delta Digital Video’s Rugged Encoders Support General Atomics. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) contracts with Delta Digital Video for delivery of rugged airborne video encoders in support of continued production for the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1C Gray Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System avionics, datalinks and software.
Delta Digital Video’s highly successful Model 6800R rugged HD Video Encoder has been providing U.S. Forces high-definition Full Motion Video (FMV) since 2008. The Model 6800R single channel encoder compresses and multiplexes payload video, audio, and metadata for real-time, low-latency transmission to remote hardware or software decoders via serial or Ethernet networks.
The 6800R supports synchronous or asynchronous KLV metadata and can be configured to convert raw sensor telemetry into KLV metadata. In addition to being MISB/STANAG/JITC certified, the 6800R complies with DO-160/MIL-STD-810/461/704 environmental and EMI standards.
“Performance is all that matters when it comes to designing and engineering fully rugged video encoders to be deployed on UAS, manned ISR aircraft, helicopters, ground vehicles, and ship platforms for Air Force, Army and Navy programs,” said George Nelson, Vice President and General Manager.
Delta Digital Video’s world-class rugged video encoders are specifically engineered to ensure mission success. (Source: UAS VISION)
19 May 20. US PMA-213 starts installation of systems on Italian Navy ship. The US Naval Air Traffic Management Systems Program Office (PMA-213) has started the installation of two landing systems aboard Italian Navy ship ITS Cavour, despite restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The installation comes after PMA-213 concluded the precision approach and landing system (PALS) certification on the USS Essex (LHD 2).
The first flight day confirmations were achieved by three USS Essex PALS systems including the AN/SPN-35 Precision Approach Landing System (PALS), the AN/SPN-41 Instrument Carrier Landing System (ICLS), and the AN/USN-3 Joint Precision and Approach Landing Systems (JPALS).
Following this, teams from Naval Air Warfare Center Webster Outlying Field (NAWCAD WOLF) Atlantic Air Traffic Control and Landing Systems (ATC&LS), Naval Test Wing ATC&LS Test, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, and Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147 aligned the systems to support the vessel.
System (ILS) and NAWCAD WOLF teams have also worked on a compressed schedule to install and facilitate full capability of AN/USN-3 and AN/SPN-41 systems on ITS Cavour.
PMA-213 International Programmes deputy programme manager Casey Edinger said: “The programme schedule was threatened when Covid-19 travel restrictions were enacted.
“US personnel typically provide onsite technical assistance and oversight for the installation of both systems. Since Italy was the European hotspot for the outbreak, the team was already preparing contingency plans when the DOD suspended all travel.”
Due to the current situation, the teams are set to provide remote technical assistance.
A Virtual Install Technical Assistance Guide for the AN/USN-3 and the AN/SPN-41 was created by PMA-213, NAWCAD WOLF, and contract support service personnel.
The guide aims to serve as a checklist for US and Foreign Military Sales shipyard installers. Daily communications are underway to monitor progress and mitigate technical issues. (Source: naval-technology.com)
19 May 20. Kopin Granted Two Key Patents on OLED Backplane Design. Patents Enable Higher Frame Rates and Lower Power Consumption of High-Resolution Displays for VR/AR/MR Applications. Kopin Corporation (Nasdaq: KOPN), a leading provider of innovative microdisplays for wearable computing applications, today announced that it was granted two US patents (10,304,372 and 10,636,347) on “Two Rows Driving Method For Micro Display Device.” The technology described in the patents are especially important for designing backplanes of high-resolution OLED microdisplays desired for virtual reality (VR), augmented (AR) and mixed reality (MR) applications since it allows lower power consumption and high frame rates (120 Hz) to avoid motion sickness.
The key claims of the patents relate to simultaneously writing pixels in two separate rows of the display array during one ramp amplifier cycle. In prior arts, pixels in only one row can be written while all the columns are being driven by the ramp. In the patented method, one half of the pixels in each column of the display array are connected to one set of rows while the other half connected to the other set of rows. The first half pixel columns are connected to a ramp amplifier while the second half pixel columns are connected to another ramp amplifier. This allows pixels in the two rows in the two different sets to be written simultaneously but also independently.
Driving two rows for each cycle of the ramp signal can reduce the ramp frequency by half, which in turn lowers the power consumption of the ramp amplifier by half. This is important because the ramp amplifier consumes a significant portion of the overall display power in high resolution displays. In addition, doubling the ramp period relaxes the timing requirements of the pixel driver circuits, which become increasingly more challenging for 120 Hz operation of higher resolution displays. As an example of the benefits, the maximum backplane power for our Lightning® 2k (2048 x 2048 resolution) OLED microdisplay is only about 450 mW at 120 Hz operation – this is about 300 mW lower than if a single row drive method were used.
“We are delighted to have these two patents granted,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, CEO of Kopin Corporation. “Our innovative double-rows driving architecture is incorporated in our Lightning 2k and 2.6k (2560 x 2560 resolution) OLED displays. With enhanced performance thanks to this patented method, we believe our OLED displays will play critical roles in realizing lifelike VR/AR/MR systems that are highly desirable in an increasingly contactless social trend.” (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
20 May 20. Amaero applies for international patent for new titanium alloy. Amaero International has applied for broad international patent coverage for its high-performance titanium alloy “Amalloy Beta Ti”. The new heat treatable titanium alloy has entered the final approval stage, the national phase of the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT).
The PCT is an international treaty with more than 150 contracting states, allowing patent protection for an invention simultaneously in a large number of countries by filing a single “international” patent application, instead of filing several separate national or regional patent applications. The granting of patents remains under the control of the national or regional patent offices in what is called the “national phase”, which Amalloy Beta Ti has now entered.
The new high-performance titanium alloy, a heat treatable version of a beta titanium alloy, achieves ultra-high strength and fatigue performance via homogeneous precipitation and removal of grain boundary alpha.
Known for the highest strength to weight ratio of any structural metal, titanium is used in multiple applications across the aviation, defence and space industries, all markets that have been experiencing significant long-term growth in value, presenting a significant opportunity for Amaero.
Amaero CEO, Barrie Finnin, commented, “The new heat-treatable titanium alloy Amalloy Beta Ti has amazing and compelling mechanical properties for applications such as structural components and fasteners widely used in the aviation, defence and aerospace industries.
“Conventional alloys have limitations and are prone to fatigue failures, which is a risk if used in aircraft. The team at Monash designed a heat treatable beta titanium alloy with a novel composition resulting in significant improvements to yield strength of around 30 per cent, as well as enhancing ultimate tensile strength (UTS), shear strength and fatigue life. In an aerospace context, being able to deliver improved durability, performance and saving weight makes a strong case for this new alloy to be used in place of the traditional options”.
The aviation industry supports US$2.7trn in world economic activity (3.6 per cent of global gross domestic product), with the global aerospace and defence market estimated to be valued at US$1,600bn in the year 2025, growing at a CAGR of 3.5 per cent in the period 2019 to 2025.
The alloy was developed by researchers at Monash University, Australia’s largest university, with which Amaero collaborates for the development of additive manufacturing technology.
Amaero has exclusive global commercial licence rights to the patented alloy, and it will form an important part of the company’s offering to its aviation, defence and space clients in the future. In addition to additive manufacturing, the alloy can also be processed using a number of conventional methods for high volume manufacturing including extrusion, forging and casting.
A second new high-performance alloy developed by Monash University for Amaero will also enter the national phase in June 2020. (Source: Defence Connect)
19 May 20. In Microelectronics, DOD Moves From ‘Trusted Foundry’ Model to ‘Zero Trust.’ Microelectronics are in nearly everything, including the complex weapons systems the Defense Department buys, such as the F-35 joint strike fighter, the Pentagon’s director of defense research and engineering for modernization said.
“It is so ubiquitous and because it is … so fundamental to everything we do,” Mark J. Lewis said via video conference today as part of a forum sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.
Because of the importance of microelectronics, he said, the department is shifting the way it goes about buying microelectronics and ensuring they are secure to use.
“We want the Department of Defense to have access to state-of-the-art capabilities, which we do not have today,” he said. That’s because the department is not buying on the commercial curve, he explained.
In the mid-1990s, DOD adopted a “trusted foundry” model for procuring microelectronics, Lewis said.
“The idea [was] that in order to deliver parts that we could trust, we would enable foundries that would manufacture our microelectronics where we had control over every step of the process — or so we thought,” he said. “That model, we think, has failed.”
The department isn’t a large purchaser of microelectronics, Lewis said, so companies that adhered to the department’s “trusted foundry” model were unable to make a business case for following it.
“As a result, they haven’t been investing,” he said. “The chips that we buy, the microelectronic components that we buy from those trusted foundries, are in some cases two generations behind what’s available on commercial state-of-the-art.”
Also, he said, the “trusted foundry” model does pose risk — from the inside.
“We’ve seen a number of examples where the biggest threats that we face often are the insider threat. It’s the people inside the fence line, behind the guards, who we think we’ve cleared,” he said. “They’re the ones that pose the biggest threats to us.”
Now, he said, the department looks instead to a “zero trust” approach to purchasing microelectronics. That assumes that nothing the department buys is safe, and that everything must be validated before it can be used.
“You depend on data, you depend on validation and verification, you depend on standards that will make sure that what you have has no surprises, doesn’t have back doors that are going to injure you or damage you, and doesn’t act in a malicious way,” he said. “We’re actually extremely comfortable now — we believe that the technologies already exist for us to be able to do that.”
By using “zero trust,” he said, the department will be able to gain access to the most modern technology.
“Our goal is to allow the Department of Defense to purchase on the commercial curves, from state-of-the-art,” Lewis said. “That will put us on … par with our strategic competitors.”
Lewis laid out 11 department technology priorities. Those include microelectronics; autonomy; cyber; 5G communications; fully-networked command and control communications; space; hypersonics; quantum science; biotechnology; artificial intelligence; and directed energy. Of those, he said, microelectronics are the top priority.
On 5G, he said, that communications technology is “an absolutely essential, high-priority monetization element for us.”
“5G brings data rates, it brings low-latency, it brings a volume of data that will be far greater than what we operate with today,” he said. “The implications for the Department of Defense, we think, are quite profound.”
The department wants for the U.S. to be setting international standards for 5G and also wants to ensure DOD’s needs and requirements are driving the direction in which the technology moves, he said.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of biotechnology, he said. But for the department, dealing with and defeating pandemics is only part of that technology space, he added.
“We view biotechnology also, as using synthetic biological processes and using biotechnology to enable and enhance new manufacturing capabilities,” he said.
He cited microorganisms that can produce materials with properties similar to concrete as an example.
Some of the work from organizations such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency can actually grow a runway, Lewis said. “You can sprinkle these organisms and have them produce runway material, instead of the old fashioned way,” he explained. Other microorganisms can concentrate rare earth metals, providing a new supply chain for those materials, Lewis said. (Source: US DoD)
19 May 20. Making Future Vertical Lift Open, Safe and Secure.
What is Future Vertical Lift?
Whether performing transport, logistics, strike or reconnaissance duties, helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft greatly multiply the effectiveness of ground forces. They are a combat multiplier as well as a lifeline in austere environments.
Future Vertical Lift (FVL) will transform the Army’s rotary wing fleet, bringing faster, more lethal and more survivable aircraft to the battlefield.
The heart of this family of aircraft will be the digital backbone, which includes the future attack reconnaissance aircraft (FARA) and the future long-range assault aircraft (FLRAA) for the Army, as well as the attack utility replacement aircraft (AURA) for the Marine Corps. This is a fully integrated, open, safe and secure architecture that will enable true multi-functionality of currently federated systems while providing the Army with the agility to rapidly iterate FVL’s mission systems to outpace the threat. The Army-owned modular, open systems architecture (MOSA) is an advanced and low-risk path to realizing this aspect of the FVL vision.
(Source: US DoD)
“Future Vertical Lift will be the most sophisticated rotorcraft to enter military service, with all systems connected by the digital backbone,” said James Conroy, vice president, navigation, targeting and survivability, Northrop Grumman. “Just as a mobile phone relies on an operating system to connect apps and sensors, this digital backbone will allow the next generation of avionics and self-protection systems to work in a unified way.”
With future generations of FVL aircraft planned to operate alongside the enduring fleet of Apaches, Black Hawks and Chinooks, ensuring interoperability and commonality within Army Aviation will also be a top priority. Investments in FVL must enable the enduring fleet to be capable of multi-domain operations concurrently.
From a flying prototype to long-term relevance
The mission systems installed on military aircraft today will need updates throughout its lifecycle to stay ahead of changing threats and to adapt to new battlespace realities. For example, an engine may change just once during an airframe’s service life, but the avionics will need to evolve many times, as well as become greater than the sum of their parts through innovative integration.
“Some of the aircrew who will fly on these aircraft have not even been born yet. That’s how far into the future we need to think,” said Conroy. “The way we will keep these aircraft relevant into the 2060s and beyond is open architecture.”
Northrop Grumman is uniquely positioned to help the Department of Defense shift the rotary wing fleet from analog to digital, from federated to open and integrated.
For 20 years, Northrop Grumman has been delivering mission computers to the U.S. Marine Corps for the AH-1Z and UH-1Y helicopters. More recently, the company has been upgrading the cockpits of UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters to a digital standard known as UH-60V. Though first applied to the UH-60V, this Army-owned architecture is a clean sheet, model-based systems engineering operating environment designed to support the most advanced platforms and their missions.
“Our architecture is a flying prototype of what FVL can be,” said Conroy. “These are the capabilities that will enable FVL and the enduring fleet to become the connected and interoperable fleet the Army envisions.”
These mission computers exemplify Northrop Grumman’s approach to software-defined, hardware-enabled digital systems. Using a modular, open systems architecture, the computers provide secure interfaces that allow for the integration of a wide range of systems and sensors. This architecture gives customers the freedom to choose the hardware and software that best meets their needs, regardless of manufacturer. It also provides a lasting path to relevance, adding years of service to proven airframes.
“Our proven mission computers deliver improved capability, commonality, reliability and maintainability to the warfighter, and they provide the foundation for any integrated avionics capability,” said Ricardo Sotura, technical fellow, Northrop Grumman.
Making systems open, safe and secure
In future conflicts, the first strike may take place in the cyber domain. As a leader in both cybersecurity and open architecture, as well as a principal member of the Future Airborne Capability Environment consortium, the company is demonstrating that open systems can be safe and secure.
“Open architecture allows our customers to select the most effective and resilient hardware and software for the mission, and that freedom of choice translates to a greater level of cyber security,” said Sotura.
Northrop Grumman provides technical data and software that provides customers with unprecedented flexibility while minimizing vendor lock and obsolescence issues.
Building relevance for the full lifecycle of FVL begins now, with a modular open systems architecture that’s secure, yet flexible enough to free the Army from federated, proprietary systems. Soldiers are depending on it.
19 May 20. US Navy ships improve attack with new multi-beam satellite antenna. Targeting enemy ships, bouncing war data off of drones, detecting incoming ballistic missiles, seeing approaching small boat attacks from over the horizon, intercepting anti-ship missiles and … perhaps most of all … networking surface, air and undersea assets in real-time — are all crucial elements of the U.S. Navy’s emerging Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) tactical attack strategy.
Offensive attack maneuver, fortified by advanced sensors and dispersed across vast swaths of ocean, is one of the tenets informing the Navy’s DMO thinking. Surface ships will by design increasingly operate in a disaggregated fashion, armed with long-range weapons and sensors; it is part of a multi-year Navy pivot toward broadly increasing lethality and attack technology throughout the surface fleet, by arming ships for high-end massive warfare on the open sea with a new generation of advanced weapons.
The sea service plans to benefit from a recently awarded Defense Innovation Unit evaluation and development contract with Isotropic Systems for new patented beam-forming antenna technologies and circuits. The goal, according to Isotropic CEO John Finney, is to “fuse multi-band, multi-orbit commercial and military capacity to deliver intelligence data at the tactical edge over a single platform.”
The value-added with this new technology is to enable a single, smaller-form factor, surface mounted, software-definable antenna that can emit a precise, narrowly configured electronic signal to several satellites at once — all while consuming less on-board power and increasing precision. It is a single, multi-beam antenna, which relies upon Isotropic’s new signal-forming optical lens technology, Isotropic Vice President of Development Brian Billman, told Warrior in an interview.
Technically, the antenna transmission draws upon a first-of-its-kind beam-forming optical lens engineered to send precise beams to several differently placed satellites at the same time, without using the entire circuitry of the system. While phased array antennas continue to be highly effective and widely operational, Billman explained that the new multi-beam antenna is quite different in that it can sustain its power and signal fidelity across multiple bands at the same time. Phased array antennas, Billman said, not only rely upon a wider aperture which consumes more of the circuitry and electrical power, but decrease in power and effectiveness when broken into two beams simultaneously. Whereas the optical lenses, designed to empower the single antenna functionality, do not need to all operate at the same time. Several different beam transmissions can connect with several satellites at once; the patented beam-forming system can connect satellites of different sizes, operating at various altitudes within different orbits. Phased arrays also, by contrast, require a larger form factor which consumes more real estate, and electrical power, on a surface ship. Also, when it comes to warfare operational resiliency, several more narrowly configured, yet dispersed, electronic signals emit a lower and less detectable signature than larger, phased array emissions.
The antenna design is engineered to enable “seamless make-before-break switching between satellites in multiple orbits, and continuous connectivity during turbulent pitch-and-roll conditions facing vessels traversing rough seas,” a company statement explained. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Fox News)
19 May 20. HENSOLDT and Nano Dimension Achieve Breakthrough in Electronics 3D Printing. New multi-layer PCB boosts electronics rapid prototyping. Sensor solutions provider HENSOLDT together with the leading Additively Manufactured Electronics (AME)/Printed Electronics (PE) provider, Nano Dimension, has achieved a major breakthrough on its way to utilizing 3D printing in the development process of high-performance electronics components. Utilizing a newly developed dielectric polymer ink and conductive ink from Nano Dimension, HENSOLDT succeeded in assembling the world-wide first 10-layer printed circuit board (PCB) which carries high-performance electronic structures soldered to both outer sides. Until now, 3D printed boards could not bear the soldering process necessary for two sided population of components.
“Military sensor solutions require performance and reliability levels far above those of commercial components.” says HENSOLDT CEO, Thomas Müller. “To have high-density components quickly available with reduced effort by means of 3D printing gives us a competitive edge in the development process of such high-end electronic systems.”
“Nano Dimension’s relationship with HENSOLDT is the type of partnership with customers we are striving for,” commented Yoav Stern, Nano Dimension President & CEO. “Working together and learning from HENSOLDT led us to reach a first-of-its-kind in-depth knowledge of polymer materials applications. Additionally, it guided us in the development of Hi-PEDs (High Performance Electronic Device) that create competitive edges by enabling unique implementations with shortest time to market.”
AMEs are useful to verify a new design and functionality of specialized electronic components before production. AME is a highly agile and individual engineering methodology to prototype a new electronic circuitry. This leads to significant reduction of time and cost in the development process. Furthermore AME allows for a verified and approved design before production starts, leading to higher quality of the final product.
HENSOLDT started working with Nano Dimension’s DragonFly 3D printing system in 2016, in order to examine the possibilities of 3D printing electronics. Last year, HENSOLDT successfully implemented the DragonFly Lights-Out Digital Manufacturing (LDM) printing technology, the industry’s only additive manufacturing platform for round-the-clock 3D printing of electronic circuitry.
18 May 20. Object Management Group Forms Digital Twin Consortium with Founders Ansys, Dell Technologies, Lendlease, and Microsoft.
Users to create standard terminology, reference architectures and share use cases across industries. Non-profit trade association Object Management Group® (OMG®) with founders Ansys, Dell Technologies, Lendlease and Microsoft, today announced the formation of Digital Twin Consortium™. Digital twin technology enables companies to head off problems before they occur, prevent downtime, improve the customer experience, develop new opportunities, drive innovation and performance and plan for the future using simulations. Members of Digital Twin Consortium will collaborate across multiple industries to learn from each other and develop and apply best practices. This new open membership organization will drive consistency in vocabulary, architecture, security and interoperability to help advance the use of digital twin technology in many industries from aerospace to natural resources.
Digital twins, virtual models of a process, product or service that allow for data analysis and system monitoring via simulations, can be challenging to implement due to a lack of open-source software, interoperability issues, market confusion and high costs. In order to ensure the success of Digital Twin Consortium, several leading companies involved in digital twin technology have joined the consortium prior to inception. This category of early innovators, called Groundbreakers, includes: Air Force Research Lab (US), Bentley Systems, Executive Development, Gafcon, Geminus.AI, Idun Real Estate Solutions AB, imec, IOTA Foundation, IoTIFY, Luno UAB, New South Wales Government, Ricardo, Willow Technology, and WSC Technology.
Membership is open to any business, organization or entity with an interest in digital twins.
“Most definitions of digital twin are complicated, but it’s not a complicated idea. Digital twins are used for jet engines, a Mars rover, a semiconductor chip, a building and more. What makes a digital twin difficult is a lack of understanding and standardization,” said Dr. Richard Soley, Digital Twin Consortium Executive Director. “Similar to what we’ve done for digital transformation with the Industrial Internet Consortium® and for software quality with the Consortium for Information and Software Quality™, we plan to build an ecosystem of users, drive best practices for digital twin usage and define requirements for new digital twin standards.”
Digital Twin Consortium will:
- Accelerate the market for digital twin technology by setting roadmaps and industry guidelines through an ecosystem of digital twin experts.
- Improve interoperability of digital twin technologies by developing best practices for security, privacy and trustworthiness and influencing the requirements for digital twin standards.
- Reduce the risk of capital projects and demonstrate the value of digital twin technologies through peer use cases and the development of open source code.
An ecosystem of companies, including those from the property management, construction, aerospace and defense, manufacturing and natural resources sectors will share lessons learned from their various industries and will work together on solve the challenges inherent in deploying digital twins. As requirements for new standards are defined, Digital Twin Consortium will share those requirements with standards development organizations such as parent company OMG.
Founding members, Ansys, Dell Technologies, Lendlease and Microsoft will each hold permanent seats on an elected Steering Committee, providing the strategic roadmap and creating member working groups.
Sam George, Corporate Vice President, Azure IoT, Microsoft Corp. said, “Microsoft is joining forces with other industry leaders to accelerate the use of digital twins across vertical markets. We are committed to building an open community to promote best practices and interoperability, with a goal to help establish proven, ready-to-use design patterns and standard models for specific businesses and domain-spanning core concepts.”
“The application of the Digital Twin technology to Lendlease’s portfolio of work is well underway and we are already realising the benefits of this innovation to our overall business,” said Richard Ferris, CTO, Digital Twin R&D, Lendlease. “The time for disruption is now, and requires the entire ecosystem to collaborate together, move away from the legacy which has hindered innovation from this industry, and embrace Digital twin technology for the future economic and sustainable prosperity of the built world. Digital Twin Consortium is key to the global acceleration of this collaboration and the societal rewards we know to be possible with this technology and approach.”
“Dell Technologies is proud to be one of the founding members of Digital Twin Consortium. As the rate of digital transformation continues to accelerate, industry-standard methods for Digital Twins are enabling large scale, highly efficient product development and life cycle management while also unlocking opportunities for new value creation. We are delighted to be part of this initiative as we work together with our industry peers to optimize the technologies that will shape the coming data decade for our customers and the broader ecosystem,” said Vish Nandlall, Vice President, Technology Strategy and Ecosystems, Dell Technologies.
“The Consortium is cultivating a highly diverse partner ecosystem to speed implementation of digital twins, which will substantially empower companies to slash expenses, speed product development and generate dynamic new business models,” said Prith Banerjee, chief technology officer, Ansys. “Ansys is honored to join the Consortium’s esteemed steering committee and looks forward to collaborating closely with fellow members to further the Consortium’s success and help define the future of digital twins.”
Digital Twin Consortium members are committed to using digital twins throughout their operations and supply chains and capturing best practices and standards requirements for themselves and their clients. Membership fees are based on annual revenue.
About Digital Twin Consortium
Digital Twin Consortium is The Authority in Digital Twin. It coalesces industry, government and academia to drive consistency in vocabulary, architecture, security and interoperability of digital twin technology. It advances the use of digital twin technology from aerospace to natural resources. Digital Twin Consortium is a program of Object Management Group. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
18 May 20. Dynetics joins DARPA’s unmanned dogfighting effort. DARPA wants to use artificial intelligence and unmanned platforms to revolutionize aerial combat. Dynetics will help DARPA scale up its artificial intelligence air-to-air combat effort, the company said May 6, potentially enabling a pilot to control a fleet of unmanned platforms in a dogfight.
Dynetics said it has been awarded a phase 1 contract as part of DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program, an effort to develop artificial intelligence for aerial combat. Among other features, ACE seeks to automate some combat functions, freeing up the human pilot for other tasks in a dogfight.
“The overarching goal of ACE is to use aerial dogfighting as sort of the crucible scenario because of its challenges and its ability to increase the complexity in order to get implementations of artificial intelligence that will help increase and help us understand how to increase trust and combat autonomy with with pilots,” explained Tim Keeter, ACE program manager for Dynetics.
“DARPA has disaggregated the program itself into four technical areas of importance, and each technical area has its own performer,” he said.
The first technical area will develop the actual dogfighting algorithms. The second will determine how to build and measure trust between pilots, the algorithms and unmanned platforms and the fourth will integrate the manned and unmanned systems together. Dynetics has been selected for the third technical area, where it will work to scale the advances made by the other team. Technical area three is valued at $12.3m. Under that 18-month Phase 1 contract, Dynetics will us the algorithms and methods developed by the other teams to enable operational-level dogfighting scenarios with a large number of heterogeneous aircraft. Eventually, that work is expected to lead to live experimentation with manned and unmanned vehicles. Dynetics’ team includes SoarTech, InfoSciTex and Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation. (Source: Defense News)
15 May 20. Turkish Aerospace has developed a new mobile application to promote its indigenous products. As being one of top defense and aerospace company, Turkish Aerospace continues to develop digital investments to present its indigenous products.
A new app called TUSAS APP will enable users to experience its products by using Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality features. Users may see the exact model of the products such as ANKA, ATAK, MMU and HÜRKUŞ. The President and CEO of Turkish Aerospace stated “TUSAS APP is one of the first app over the defense Industry in Turkey. Since we have entered the digital age, applications play a vital role for companies. The application designed for public use in order to expand knowledge of our company and its products. TUSAS APP will allow the users virtual tour among the products, 360 degree skimming through products via augmented reality and other features such as career opportunities.”
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.
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