Steering a robot over terrain strewn with shifting sand, rock crags, and pits of muck, without driving into ditches and deadfalls, is no game – just ask industry veteran Matt Toschlog, president of Ann Arbor-based Reactor Zero. The gaming company's creations range from larks at the helm of a Play Station 3 or PC to real simulations deployed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) to improve the mobility of unmanned ground vehicles, from hulking tanks to robots.
Reactor Zero and several other metro Detroit businesses are at ground zero of the area's thriving defense industry. According to Automation Alley's 2007 report on the state of southeast Michigan's technology industry, local defense and homeland security contractors are marching at high speed to supply the military. Between 2000 and 2005, 53% of the 671 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants --totaling nearly $187 million for the region-- were awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense (D.o.D).
And as if Michigan's ability to attract those funds weren't impressive enough, the D.o.D recently relocated its Robotics Systems Joint Program Office from Alabama to Warren. Needless to say, employment is expected to spike as more robotics firms gravitate to metro Detroit.
Robots are under Reactor Zero's chain of command. The company was founded in 2005 as a division of Quantum Signal, LLC, an engineering firm that does signal processing and has had a military clientele for many years. Staffers in its Reactor Zero division have worked on SBIR activities as well as a variety of military contracts, says Toschlog.
These innovations include the Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE), which combines the graphics and real-time performance of gaming with engineering simulations. It's used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center to develop and improve the mobility of unmanned ground vehicles.
VANE helps to answer problems like "How do we make a robot that drives well over a bunch of different terrain?" Toschlog offers.
Another development, the Gaming Technology Software Initiative (GTSI) will be deployed by the Warren-based U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC). Among other things, GTSI can be used to simulate robot disposal of improvised explosive device (I.E.D.) disposal, or as a tool in vehicle engineering, where different parts of the system can be replaced with either serious simulations or used with machine-in-the-loop systems.
"… If the Army develops a complex engine simulator, they could then plug that into the GTSI system and use their simulator while getting top-end graphics and controls [that are similar] to a game system. The … machine-in-the-loop is similar except that an actual machine replaces part of the software system," Toschlog explains. "An example is a project we worked on a few years ago, where TARDEC was developing a video touch-screen device to provide mission objectives and maps to vehicle drivers in real time. We integrated that system into our application so that someone could play the "game" while using and testing the real video device."
CEO Mitch Rohde, PhD, notes, as recently as three or four years ago, "…there was a lot more reticence and a lot fewer people into the idea of the uses of gaming and engineering and bringing them together. Nowadays you see a lot more of that idea coming together, certainly in the simulation conferences and things."
Weapon wizardry and adaptable fuel
Aim is the name of the game with Ann Arbor-based EOTech, Inc., a subsidiary of $14 billion defense contractor L-3 Communications. It designs and manufactures electro-optical sighting systems for small and mid-sized weapons platforms, including its patented Holographic Weapon Sight – the official approved product for U.S. Special Forces.
Think of the hologram as a projected image superimposed on a target. "…It provides much faster target acquisition and is one of the reasons why troops tend to prefer it," Edward Schoppman, sales and marketing vice president, explains.
While most of its sales are to branches of the military and law enforcement, civilian customers also use the weapon sights to sharpen their focus on hunting, recreational shooting, and competitions. The 145-employee firm is in the midst of recruiting, says Schoppman. From 2000 through 2007, sales growth has exceeded 600%, and "2008 shows the same steep growth curve."
Similar sights are focused on Adaptive Materials, the first company to develop a portable and fuel-flexible solid oxide fuel cell system. Co-founder and co-inventor Aaron Crumm, PhD, sought to use a globally available fuel source to generate electricity – propane. Currently, all military branches are using or investigating possible applications for the product, which also fuels the medical device, boating, and recreational vehicle industries.
Since its founding in 2000, the Pittsfield Township company has received over $32 million in funding through the Defense Advances Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other government agencies. It employs over 60 and is planning to grow to 100 within the next year, adding positions in engineering, research, manufacturing, and administrative functions, says co-founder and Chief Business Officer Michelle Crumm.
She says, "Adaptive Materials continues to innovate military applications related to unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles. These unmanned vehicles are the future of military technology; they enable surveillance and other functions while offering a safer alternative than soldiers having to conduct these types of missions themselves in dangerous settings."
Tools for the troops
Solidica is also doing its part to keep troops out of harm's way by providing rugged wireless and wired sensors for the military. The company's recent projects have supplied U.S. Marine Corps ground vehicles with armor tiles that integrate with Solidica's sensing systems. The sensors 'feel' environmental conditions and parameters, such as the temperature and vibration of the vehicles, fuel levels, and weapons systems. Since its founding in 1999, the Ann Arbor company has grown to 30 employees, 15 of whom were added in just the last two years.
And, of course, thousands of civilians report for duty every day at Detroit area behemoths that can fit an army of tanks and fighter jets inside their sprawling complexes. Perhaps best known is Sterling Heights-based General Dynamics Land Systems, an 8,400 employee-strong subsidiary of $27 billion defense contractor General Dynamics Corporation, the defense industry's largest supplier of armored military vehicles. The company designs and manufactures armored tracked, wheeled, and amphibious combat and robotics vehicles for the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and international customers.
Its neighbor, BAE Systems , is a $31 billion global defense and aerospace company that plans to convert its Sterling Heights industrial property into a latter-day prototyping and test facility --expected to generate over 1,000 engineering, high-tech, and other jobs over the next 14 years.
The sixth-largest U.S. defense contractor serves up hundreds of products to the air, land and naval forces. A perusal of the product list, from A to X, yields some curious finds, ranging from at-your-peril Archerfish mine disposal systems and Desert Piranha light tanks to – shhh! – Stealthy Wallpaper.
"The market seems to be really strong, despite what we would call a domestic economic downturn," Schoppman observes. "The military sector is still very strong, and can be pretty much recession-proof."
And that's not classified information.
Tanya Muzumdar is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Metromode and Concentrate. Her previous article was A Growing Concern.
Photos:
VANE project - courtesy Reactor Zero
Matt Toschlog, president of Ann Arbor-based
Reactor ZeroEOTech's Holographic Weapon Sight
Adaptive Material's portable and fuel-flexible solid oxide fuel cell system
Photographs by Marvin Shaouni
Marvin Shaouni is the managing photographer for Metromode & Model D.