Rome business awarded Army contract to develop AI radios

ANDRO Computational Solutions of Rome has been awarded a $3 million Army Rapid Innovation Fund contract to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) based radio called DEEPLink under its I-ROAM (Intelligent RadiO with Agility via Machine-learning) project.

The company, headquartered in the Beeches Business Complex on Turin Road, said that the DEEPLink radio will be capable of self-learning and autonomously adapting to its environment to optimally enhance the reliability and survivability of tactical communications in harsh operating conditions.

The work will be performed under ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Lab headed by Dr. Jithin Jagannath and Anu Jagannath and will be in support of the Army Futures Command-Cross Functional Team mission partner.

The DEEPLink will employ a unique self-organizing wireless mesh network for expanding wireless coverage together with using distributed transmission power control for cooperative dynamic spectrum sharing.

“This is a next step in our plans to get critical technologies to the warfighter including solutions that will benefit the civilian and commercial sector,” said Dr. Andrew Drozd, ANDRO president and chief scientist.

“The world is moving fast towards AI-assisted, agile spectrum managed, edge-based communications which has major implications on the defense industry and beyond including 5G, autonomous vehicles, and the drone market, and we are in the critical path of all this,” Drozd said.

Drozd said ANDRO is looking to fill up to 10 new jobs in the areas of wireless command, control, communications, cyber, and computational technologies and is looking to cultivate local talent with a combination of software programming, wireless, AI and machine learning skills.

The Army Futures Command leads the persistent modernization of the Army to provide future warfighters with new and emerging technology.

ANDRO provides research, engineering, and technical services to defense and commercial industries. The independently owned company, established in 1994, is dedicated to research, development and the application of advanced computer software and hardware solutions for spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications for cognitive radios, multisensor and multi target tracking, advanced radar data fusion, and sensor resource management.

ANDRO also has offices in Syracuse at the Central New York Biotech Accelerator and Dayton, Ohio and anticipates opening additional offices in Rochester, New York and Melbourne, Fla.