We Make Robots Work as a Team

‘Talent wins games. But teamwork wins championships.’ - Michael Jordan

We have all grown up in the company of robots, in books and movies and on the Internet, and those fictional robots have created a popular understanding of what robots can do that doesn’t always match reality. Real robots tend to be highly specialized to perform one task very well, whether it is cleaning floors, collecting items from a warehouse, or tightening the bolts on a wheel. Specialist robots can be arranged into structured teams to do complex tasks, as on an assembly line, but they do not have the ability to make their own group decisions about how to solve a problem.

That’s fine for a task like assembling an automobile, but it means that today’s robots are not good at tasks that involve on-the-spot decision-making, like deciding whether to send a drone or a ground robot to inspect an unknown object.  AvaWatz is changing that.

THE PROBLEM

Despite all our human ingenuity, there are still tasks that stubbornly resist all our attempts to automate them. Why is it that we can largely automate the process of building cars, but not the process of building houses? Of course, there are lots of differences, but one of the biggest is predictability. Cars can be built in factories where every step of the process is rigidly controlled. Every house is built in a different location, on different soil, under different weather conditions, with different materials and design specifications. Today’s robots can certainly learn the tool-handling skills needed to build a house, but if they are to become proficient at building houses, they must also be able to use those skills in a variety of different settings.

Humans Are Still Performing Far Too Many Tedious, High-risk Tasks

Many of today’s industries continue to delegate tedious, time-sensitive, and high-stress responsibilities to humans. Yet in these error-prone environments, mistakes carry significant safety and financial implications.

A prime example is the work of airport and airfield regulators, who must physically inspect runways multiple times each day to identify and remove hazards or debris. These tire fragments, metal shards, and other foreign objects could result in a catastrophic accident if missed.

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THE SOLUTION

Robots Solve Complex Problems Through Teamwork

Finding and removing Foreign Object Debris from runways before it causes a catastrophic accident is a good example of the kind of problem that AvaWatz intends to solve. A small drone can detect a debris fragment and report its location, and a ground-based robot can go and remove the fragment, and it seems fairly simple to implement that solution. But we can save much time and not stop to recharge batteries if we use multiple drones to inspect the runway, station multiple ground robots along the runway, and send the nearest robot to remove the debris. This kind of teamwork calls for complex reasoning and group decision-making, and it is this kind of group decision-making that the AvaWatz platform enables.

Debris removal is a simple example of the kind of problem AvaWatz will solve. More complex use cases involve air, ground, and water-borne robots, with different sensors and actuators, working together on tasks like post-storm recovery or wildfire management.  To support this broad range of applications, AvaWatz devotes significant Research and Development effort to sensing and operating in adverse conditions, including night, bad weather, smoke, and GPS-degraded and GPS-denied conditions.

In summary, the AvaWatz decision intelligence platform helps air and ground robots work together. Our platform creates “cobot” teams who can execute complex tasks, in challenging environments, through real-time collaboration. Working together, collaborating robots shoulder the burden of tedious, repetitive, and unsafe tasks. Our software implements a Detect-Decide-Act cycle to resolve challenges accurately. We do this by integrating team navigation, computer vision, information sharing, and group decision-making. 

Currently it takes a ground crew up to two hours, on average, to detect and remove airfield debris. We are continuously working on reducing the total time to clear a runway to 15-20 minutes with cobot teams - allowing airfields to schedule more landings resulting in increased profits.

*Drones shown in video are pre-market prototypes and not currently available on the market.

Airfields are one of many opportunities across industrial sectors. Our next steps involve integration and adoptions in the ground transit and surveillance markets.

While our pilot prototype detects and retrieves hazardous debris from airport runways and taxiways, our AI platform can be applied to an expansive spectrum of tasks across various industries.

AvaWatz’s business model is simple. We use a recurring revenue subscription model. Our offer is structured for one- to three-year contracts. Contracts include levels of tiered support so customers can find the right fit for their need accelerating adoption. To ensure ease of onboarding, we’ve included operator training, support, and system updates for all our services.

Collaboration is our core product and core company value. Investing in our community is key for AvaWatz. That’s why a portion of our revenue shall be donated to support efforts for endangered species monitoring and debris pick-up along our coastlines.

THE MARKET

We Plan To Help Companies Meet The $634 Billion Demand For Solutions Coming By 2026

The AI market is projected to reach a staggering $407 billion by 2027, experiencing substantial growth from its estimated $86.9 billion revenue in 2022 (source). Early market demand for smart airports, ground transit assets, and surveillance total $634 Billion by 2026 (source, source). 

The growing spend for robotic teams shows a demand for autonomous mobile robots, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. This growth in demand is our opportunity as adoption and application was accelerated by the pandemic (source).

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Forward-looking projections are not guaranteed.

AvaWatz has a unique advantage for early market adoption that traditional competitors don’t. Our advantage? We make hardware developers’ robots better. We make robots into cooperative teams through software, something hardware suppliers don’t do. Our platform will make traditional competition into raving advocates. The reason why?

AvaWatz’s platform allows robotics producers to provide more value to their customers without increasing production costs. Our focus on driving collaboration between multiple robots. We add value to companies producing robots by increasing customer retention, satisfaction, and in-industry referrals. This applies to all robotic manufacturers from drones, autonomous vehicles, assembly line solutions, and more.

OUR TRACTION

We Are Market Ready | Prototyped & Commercial Application Approved

The AvaWatz platform is fully prototyped and pilot-tested for operational environments. IE-we are ready for launch. There were three phases of prototypes released to the U.S. Air Force over the last two and half years. These prototypes include surveillance versions which were also contracted out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In 2022 we began to work on the early versions for the combined air and ground robotic vehicles. These prototypes were released to the US Army. 

Our ongoing product R&D with our U.S. Air Force, Army and DHS establishes our credibility for meeting our customers' needs. It also helps customers confidently and quickly adopt our platform. Our DoD contracts also prepared us to meet unique and challenging operational requirements companies need when using our solution.

*Drones shown in video are pre-market prototypes and not currently available on the market.

Our next step? Onboarding customers in the Flightline Operations space into our sales pipeline. Starting 2023 we are implementing marketing campaigns for integrating and acquiring customers in this space. We’re combining outreach, targeted placement, voice of customer research, and sales best practices to identify accelerated sales opportunities for quick market adoption.

WHY INVEST

Invest In The Future Of Robotics, Today 

AvaWatz believes in a world where robots collaborate like humans to help companies increase productivity and profits while increasing on site safety. Our unique solution serves an unmet demand in the market, has solution validation with $13M in the sales pipeline, and DoD contracts. Our team is building the future of growth today. Join our team as we create connected ‘Cobot’ teams to meet the world’s demand today, using the next era of robotics.

AvaWatz uses decision intelligence to make robots collaborate. Our platform transforms robots into teams of ‘cobots’ that help companies get more done, faster, without compromising quality or safety. Our cobot solution helps companies track dangerous debris on airfields, accelerate manufacturing output, track land management in challenging terrain, support conservation tracking, and more. We currently serve target airfields, ground transit, and surveillance missions for private, government, and defense sectors with working prototypes used by the US Air Force and Army.