BlackSky Remote-Delivered Automated Target Recognition (RATR)

BlackSky proposes building the Remote driven automated target recognition (ATR) Service, a fully end-to-end automated solution for tracking the movement of vehicles and maintaining custody of targets using data from multiple sensor systems.  BlackSky will build a cloud-based ecosystem continuously pulling multi-INT satellite sensor data, fuses and processes it through artificial intelligence (AI) to track vehicles and distributes actionable intelligence to mobile devices and analysts worldwide. The goal of this effort is to develop an end-to-end software tool that aggregates opportunistic space-based capabilities and enables an efficient and reliable ecosystem for the request and delivery of data products. The focus is on space-to-ground based tracking of vehicles (cars, trucks, military vehicles, mobile equipment, ships, maritime military assets, etc). BlackSky will take advantage of existing commercial ground and space architectures and BlackSky’s proven vertically integrated, end-to-end solutions. BlackSky has invested over $350M in private capital over 7 years to develop an autonomous global remote sensing system that consists of a 14-satellite constellation of high-resolution visible imaging satellites and a global satellite ground system that enables rapid tasking, collection, and image data delivery. This is underpinned by a secure, fully cloud-enabled satellite operations system; a user-friendly, web-based tasking system; and a cloud-based exploitation system that utilizes continuously evolving AI/ML) technologies to fuse open-source intelligence feeds with satellite imagery to provide information and intelligence on critical objects of interest. BlackSky has developed a proven capability to track moving targets using it’s electro-optical (EO) satellite constellation. Unlike traditional Moving Target Indicator (MTI) that relies on radar sensors and the Doppler effect, BlackSky’s Spectra AI platform performs target tracking using multi-frame spaceborne optical imagery. Advancements in computing have afforded greater on-orbit processing capabilities than ever before, a key factor in achieving the low-latency requirements for Department of Defense (DoD) entities. BlackSky recently demonstrated its EO-based target recognition and MTI algorithms successfully within an on-orbit testbed. Experimenting within this resource-constrained environment produced valuable insight to appropriately architect on-orbit processing solutions. BlackSky will work to build the Spectra Custody Service, a fully end-to-end automated solution for tracking the movement of vehicles and maintain custody of targets using data from the BlackSky satellites and other sensor systems. BlackSky will conduct the work in 3 phases. (1) systems engineering work to verify the additional layers which close the loop and make vehicle monitoring possible at scale (2) develop the service, beginning with a maritime tracking use case (3) demonstration for moving vehicles.