Ubihere’s Visual Based Inventory Management (VBIM) solution was unanimously selected by a panel of Army leadership as the winner at the technology “Solution Shootout” held at Ft. Sill Oklahoma. By winning the challenge, Ubihere was funded to participate in the Army’s Project Convergence 2022 technology demonstrator held at the National Training Center.
The Shootout was the capstone event for the Direct Phase II SBIR Ubihere was previously awarded under the Army Futures Command (AFC) SPARTN initiative. The primary objective of the program is to modernize and automate munition inventory tracking processes to increase combat effectiveness and operational excellence. Leading up to the Shootout, Ubihere conducted several site visits to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Fort Bliss, Texas, and The Orchard Combat Training Center in Idaho where the team interacted with active Army field artillery teams during training exercises. Says JD Bourke, Ubihere’s VBIM Program Manager, “The soldier touchpoints provided us with a comprehensive understanding of the challenges the Army currently faces with logistics. Paper and pen are used throughout the DoD to track inventory and the logistics process is fragmented and broken. The feedback and input we received from the on-the-ground soldiers were invaluable in developing our solution.”
Ubihere successfully demonstrated its VBIM prototype system to Army stakeholders on August 30, 2022. For this project, Ubihere successfully developed a suite of edge-AI technologies that can be deployed and extended to numerous different Army applications. The prototype’s design focuses on an easy-to-learn, intuitive user interface that guides soldiers through the inventory transfer process rapidly and produces highly accurate and accountable inventory documentation. The data extracted from this process can be easily transmitted to current and future inventory systems, including the planned CAMS and TAMIS systems. Michael Karnes, Ubihere’s Senior Engineer, added, “We developed the VBIM solution in a flexible and easy to train manner, allowing the solution to be adapted for other applications across the Army. Ubihere invented several new computer vision techniques to successfully complete this project and we were rewarded with the unanimous vote by Army leadership in the Shootout. We are excited about the next phase of this project!”