SBIR-STTR Award

The United States Air Force (USAF) is a large enterprise with many operational processes executed throughout the organization, in controlled and uncontrolled environments. These processes and the environments in which they take place are often complex, with people routinely distributed to execute on missions and in training scenarios. The distributed nature of USAF operational and training work creates fragility in associated processes and the flow of critical information. Supporting all levels and aspects of USAF warfare competency is training. Air Education and Training Command (AETC) operations are complex and take place in distributed environments. AETC has identified a mission need, as validated with the 412th Test Wing, 372nd Training Squadron and the 367th Training Support Squadron (note attached Letter of Support), for training tools that emulate that complexity, and importantly, also extend to those fragile and distributed environments. Considering the point about extending training and emulating complex and chaotic environments, it is logical that Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Extended Reality (XR) are crucial aspects of USAF training plans. Parallel to this are traditional and analog military training formats - everything from flying a training flight to doing a 1:1 static aircraft walkthrough fam ground event. End user discovery discussions with personnel from 412th Test Wing, 372nd Training Squadron and the 367th Training Support Squadron (note attached Letter of Support) brought to light several gaps to address for USAF to maximize the training value from AR/VR: Data collection is not structured and consistent across training formats Effective linkages between AR/VR tools and learning management systems are not yet in place As such, the principal problem we propose to address is in the structured and consistent training and evaluation data collection at the point of student performance - both for digital formats (e.g. AR/VR) and for analog ones. The overall objective of this phase of work is to test and validate, with USAF training squadron personnel, the feasibility of the COTS Adyton Platform and grading / evaluation use case configuration for addressing training data collection needs. Specific objectives are: Investigate the training and grading process critical data (input and output) sources. Identify training data creation, flow and choke points within the organization. Identify mobile software user needs and structured data capture requirements for existing core training processes and workflows. Investigate AR/VR (currently used and expected/potential) system created training data and requirements for structured capture. Test UI design with users to assess validity of improved and mobile data capture.

Adyton Public Benefit Corporation is a veteran-owned and operated, venture-backed technology company dedicated to bringing first class secure mobile technology to workers where the mission is critical, security is essential, connectivity is a challenge, and compliance is required. This proposed SBIR Phase II work will adapt Adyton’s core commercial off the shelf product - the Adyton Solution Platform (ASP) and, built upon it, Mustr (a secure web and mobile software system) - to a prototype Mobile Maintainer Readiness and Accountability System (M2RAS). This work will be a collaboration amongst empowered and committed end users from the USAF 377 Logistics Readiness Squadron and the USAF 377 Air Base Wing, and other tenant units across Kirtland AFB, e.g. NM ANG and AFSOC. USAF 377 LRS taking the lead in coordinating end user and customer support, has committed $20K in unit funds to this effort. 377 ABW will integrate other vehicle end user stakeholders including Ground Transportation Office and Vehicle Control Officers from across Kirtland AFB for high volume user testing of vehicle inspection workflows. Additionally, the 377 ABW Spark Cell will work with Global Strike Command to scale the capability across the Air Force. The ASP solution enables mobile and web software security and functionality to meet defense (and similar commercial) use case needs. Adyton developed ASP from the ground up to meet the most stringent compliance and security standards and to deliver impact to those operating in distributed environments and with intermittent connectivity. As such, ASP is built on a secure cloud backend, is HIPAA / PII compliance ready, able to provide FIPS140-2 data encryption at rest and in transit, supportive of CAC authentication, remote access control, and designed to prevent data lock-in. Adyton launched Mustr - a mobile and web accountability software system built on ASP - in 2020 to serve markets with highly sensitive, fluid and / or high-risk workflows, highly regulated data (HIPAA, PII, government classified, etc), and mobile field-based workforces. Mustr automates daily operations processes, provides live, automatically-updating information tracking, and structures information for easy aggregation and data export. Vehicle inspections are a natural extension of this, and M2RAS configuration will provide: Automated AF 4355 and AF 1800 PDF document generation Fully digital mobile interface for AF 1800 recurring daily and monthly inspections for vehicle end users and ground transportation personnel Fully digital mobile tablet AF 4355 vehicle maintenance inspection checklist for customer service, technician, and quality assurance personnel Real-time remote vehicle malfunction reporting Automated end user maintenance window alerting Peer to peer mobile knowledge collaboration - “Stack Overflow for maintainers” Structured fleet maintenance data to feed unit level Microsoft Power BI dashboards