Rapidly Installed Robotic Applique Kit – Surface (RIRAK–S)

As the need for rapid response continues to rise, the Department of the Navy is seeking to automate many of its assets through the SBIR Unmanned Surface Vessel initiative to assist with HADR operations. In late May of 2020, Kairos Autonomi began work on Phase I of the HADR SBIR program. With the Kairos USV system, any standard Jon boat or small surface vessel that carries any standard outboard marine motor can be automated and made to follow pre-defined GPS coordinates with no additional or destructive alteration needed to the surface vessel. This fact is vital in dangerous operational environments, as any small surface vessel can be rapidly equipped with this system by a single individual, sent into danger with no risk to a human operator, and perform a fully autonomous mission with a high probability of success. These systems underwent multiple revisions through a spiral model of development. Build, Test, AAR, Iterate. Kairos is natively a manufacturing company with significant applied science expertise. We are not an S & T company. All of our designs and products are based upon existing ‘legos’ and we build a new concept from there. We do not start a program unless we already have 80% existing and proven from a manufacturing, hardware and software sense. Tech transfer and commercialization are inherent as we deliver nearly 100% on an FFP basis to customers globally. Throughout this document the word ‘autonomous’ our ‘autonomously’ are used. Please construe these to mean an automated system or automation. They are not ‘Autonomous’ as that does not exist yet. These Automated systems execute combinational logic to follow a GPS course, if sensors are present they can detect and avoid an object based upon rules of passage. At the conclusion of the Phase I contract period, Kairos had produced several functional systems. During field testing, Kairos demonstrated that their system did surpass both of the Phase II requirements.