Ubotica funded by EC to pioneer AI In Space Defence

Ubotica, the Irish space AI specialist, has been selected by the European Commission to participate in its ARCHYTAS project, a three-year initiative to develop AI accelerators for defence applications.

It means the Dublin-based company has been awarded an undisclosed grant that will be funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF).

“We are delighted to receive our first grant from the European Defence Fund,” said Fintan Buckley, Ubotica CEO.

“SPACE:AI can be a critical tool in defence, identifying risks in real-time and ensuring rapid response capabilities. This support from the EDF enables us to push the boundaries of AI technology and contribute significantly to Europe’s defence capabilities.”

EDF

The EDF is an initiative of the European Union, by funding collaborative research and development projects.

Its stated aim is to foster “innovation and cooperation across member states, companies, and research institutions to develop cutting-edge defence technologies”.

You can read more about ARCHYTAS here, and its aim to use “novel technologies at the device and package level” for the use of AI in defence.

Ubotica

Founded in 2017, Ubotica is headquartered in Dublin and has a team of Computer Vision Engineers in Spain and Canada, and a team of space systems experts in the Netherlands, based in the Aerospace Innovation Hub at the TU Delft Campus.

Its CogniSAT-CRC system combines AI processing – a neural network-based Cloud Detection and Removal algorithm – with lossless image compression. Launched in 2023, it is designed to save on downlink costs by optimising the image assets on the satellite.

Image: Ubotica – its CogniSAT-XE2 hardware platform

See also: Irish government funds NSSPI consortium for optical space comms