Intuitive Machines and the Center for Autonomous Vehicles and Sensor Systems (CANVASS), which is within the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), have created an integrated team through a Technical Assistance Agreement to develop an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for agricultural applications. This agreement is the first of its kind for TEES, and it is an excellent example of combining academic research with commercial development efforts.
The agreement between Intuitive Machines and TEES will allow Intuitive Machines to test its UAS sensor system in an agricultural application. As one of TEES’ research centers, CANVASS will integrate the sensor system into its UAS platform, flight test the sensor system in an agricultural application and provide independent analysis of Intuitive Machine’s UAS sensor system. The UAS sensor system has the potential to be used in agriculture applications, such as crop health assessment, scanning and soil analysis. Intuitive Machines, the CANVASS team and Texas A&M Engineering resources will be an integrated team working together throughout this project to develop requirements, observe/conduct/assess the flight performance, review resulting data and analyze results.
A congressional mandate and compelling industrial market forces are driving the rapid development of the UAS industry. UAS capabilities are universally recognized as the next great step in aviation history with applications across numerous industrial sectors, such as agriculture, oil and gas, wildlife management, law enforcement and disaster response.
As an engineering design and development think tank, Intuitive Machines provide products and solutions that employ a “flight proven” lean engineering development model. Their rapid iterative design-build-test capability significantly lowers development costs and shortens the development cycle while increasing the probability of success for any project. By leveraging state-of-the-art engineering tools and practices, Intuitive Machines is integrating multiple sensors into embedded systems using a flexible software architecture. This architecture can be adapted to both diagnostic and operational instrumentation for real-time data acquisitions on UAS platforms in a variety of industries.
TEES’ Technical Assistance Program (TAP) forms partnerships with private industry that encourage innovation and economic growth in Texas. TAP links small businesses in Texas to the broad spectrum of engineering and technology research capital within The Texas A&M University System and its partner network statewide. It provides low-cost technical assistance for small businesses to find solutions to their technical challenges, such as increasing operational efficiency, developing new market strategies for their technologies, evaluating and improving manufacturing processes, and facilitating partnerships that encourage innovation.
Intuitive Machines is a company that brings to bear a very unique array of talent, analytical services and computational tools to solve significant challenges across multiple industries. Their individual heritage and aerospace expertise forges a corporate DNA that is work hardened in problem solving complemented by strong values of commitment, technical excellence and serving humanity.
Learn more about Intuitive Machines at: http://intuitivemachines.com.