AFWERX Awards ASYLON $1.2M Contract for U.S. Space Force

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

AFWERX has awarded Asylon Robotics a $1.2M Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract in order to transition its DogHouse unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) recharging platform to battery swapping for UGVs.

Asylon will assist the 6th Space Warning Squadron (6 SWS) at Joint Base Cape Cod in developing a battery swap station for UGVs, allowing for uninterrupted security operations. Asylon’s DroneHome battery swapping technology, made to facilitate the automated swapping of batteries for small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAS), will be integrated into Asylon’s recharging Doghouse to form a battery replacement/swap station for UGVs. The goal of the collaboration is to produce the ability to rapidly re-power quadruped UGVs (Q-UGV) resulting in continuous perimeter security operations.

“Asylon was founded on the premise that automating the infrastructure for robots is crucial to robots being effective and adopted at scale. We started by developing a battery-swapping station that automated the entire backend of operations for drones. My co-founders and I come from the aerospace and defense space focusing on delivering a holistic platform that meets the customer’s needs, and do so repeatedly and reliably,” said CTO and Co-Founder Adam Mohamed. “From a technology perspective, developing a reliable ground robotics version of our DroneHome battery swapping station will put Asylon in the unique position of the first to have developed automated battery swapping stations for both air and ground robots. We are excited to be partnering once again with the Space Force to develop such a cutting-edge solution.”

“The squadron will benefit in being provided assets, in the form of the robotic security dog and charging station, to maintain high tempo perimeter security operations for deterrence and real time intelligence,” said Lt. Col. Stewart Smith, 6th Space Warning Squadron commander.

Last year, Asylon carried out more than 24,000 remotely operated security missions from their Robotic Security Operations Center (RSOC) employing both air and ground assets, making it the world’s largest robotic security fleet operator. The Asylon DroneDog Q-UGV fleet patrolled over 9,600 miles over the course of 2022. Asylon expects the DogHouse to increase system performance dramatically, granting more operational time for security missions and value to clients.

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Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.