Shield AI acquires pilot analysis software suite

Shield AI, the defense technology unicorn focused on autonomy, has acquired a suite of software products from Crowdbotics to further build up a library of artificial intelligence-centric offerings for customers.

Crowdbotics’ Data Driven Readiness intellectual property assets will become a part of Hivemind, Shield AI’s flagship tool for helping organizations develop and deploy autonomous capabilities. Terms of the transaction announced Tuesday were not disclosed.

This move follows Shield AI’s announcement in March of its $240 million F-1 capital raise from investors to support the further development of Hivemind. Shield AI also builds the V-BAT unmanned aircraft and TEAMS software to operate those vehicles.

With its purchase of DDR, Shield AI is adding an analytics software lineup that works to help fighter pilots analyze their performance. DDR is designed to help collect, process and visualize flight data to assess the pilots’ proficiency for post-mission debriefings.

“Building trust between human pilots and AI pilots is essential for embracing advanced autonomy and concepts such as manned-unmanned teaming, or MUM-T,” said Christian Gutierrez, vice president of Hivemind solutions at Shield AI, said in a release. “Hivemind Pilots generate substantial amounts of flight data, and integrating DDR will strengthen Hivemind’s autonomy debrief capabilities — improving how users prepare for, execute, and learn from each mission.”

Some key members of the DDR team will join Shield AI, including Crowdbotics’ now-former managing director of defense Julian Capps.

“We’re excited to see the DDR technology, which is best in class for analyzing flight data and pilot proficiency, join forces with the Shield AI platform to further their mission in delivering advanced autonomous defense solutions,” said Capps.