RTX Ventures, the venture capital unit of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), on Monday announced a minority investment in California-based EpiSci, which is developing autonomous technologies for defense and space applications.
“EpiSci is a leader in rapidly deployable, hardware-agnostic autonomy solutions and a key enabler to the AI-embedded battlefield of the future,” said RTX Ventures’ managing director Daniel Ateya. “As an early investor we plan to support EpiSci’s endeavors in creating a trust-based, collaborative environment between humans and AI-enabled machines.”
“Receiving an investment from RTX Ventures confirms that our model-based hybrid Tactical AI is a viable approach for enabling trusted autonomy for the future,” said EpiSci founder and President Bo Ryu. “We firmly believe that our Tactical AI delivers both the trust and performance that human operators need and minimizes the limitations of end-to-end machine learning approaches.”
Just Getting Started
RTX Ventures, based in San Francisco to tap Silicon Valley technologies, was established in March with undisclosed funding from the aerospace and defense giant Raytheon. It aims to back startups that broadly address the following four priority areas — secure and connected ecosystems, autonomy and artificial intelligence technologies, power and propulsion systems, and precision sensing and effects.
Raytheon’s venture unit is headed by Daneil Ateya, who was previously a director at 3M Ventures. RTX would be “stage-agnostic, but a sweet spot for us will be Series A, Series B companies that have built a prototype or initial product or service,” Ateya told Business Journal in an interview, adding that the investment range would likely range between $2 million and $10 million. RTX eyes between five and 10 deals per year. Ahead of its investment in EpiSci, it had only three other portfolio firms — Hermeus, an Atlanta, Ga., developer of hypersonic aircraft; Switzerland H55, which is developing electric airplanes, and VerdeGo Aero, a Daytona, Fla., developer of hybrid aircraft.
Product-ready
EpiSci was founded in 2012 by Korean native Bo Ryu, a former Boeing engineer. Armed with a Ph. D in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering, Bo has done formidable research work on autonomous vehicles and related technologies. EpiSci draws on his knowledge as well as R&D from projects funded by DARPA and other Department of Defense agencies. It has initially focused on Tactical AI technologies in its quest to be a “leader of assured autonomy” and in “creating disruptive autonomous and intelligent systems” for applications across defense and space.
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Tactical AI enables robust autonomous decision-making capabilities in six targeted domains believed to offer the highest potential for impact. They are: cognitive electronic warfare, automated cybersecurity training, resource optimization for time-critical computing, tactical autonomous network management, cognitive radios and networks, manned and unmanned teaming autonomy.
Previously demonstrated in DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution and Air Force Research Lab’s Golden Horde Colosseum, the technology can help train trustworthy AI pilots, and create precision sensing and effects for fighter aircraft, assist human-centric man-unmanned teaming for fighter planes, and aid advanced wireless tactical communication systems for first responders.
EpiSci’s first product is called SwarmSense, an AI-powered modular drone with industrial and military applications. SwarmSense can be used to manage a fleet of drones for tasks, such as aerial inspection of large transportation networks and bridges, searches, and to drop emergency supplies. “With minimal hardware modifications, SwarmSense enables drones to be swarm capable and autonomously solve complex tasks together without time-consuming pre-flight planning or manual piloting,” the company says.
