‘Tactical Edge Vehicle’ Combines GIS, Artificial Intelligence, and Augmented Reality for Field Missions
REDLANDS, Calif.—June 5, 2019—Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, today announced that Microsoft’s Tactical Edge Platform will use Esri’s ArcGIS Enterprise to give its Microsoft Azure and Azure Cognitive Services a geographic context through Esri’s advanced mapping and spatial analytics technology. The platform is intended to demonstrate to defense and intelligence professionals how they can utilize connecting field sensor data and cloud services for domestic emergency response, or for tactical field operations support in theater. This demonstration is displayed by deploying the platform in a fully operational car called the Tactical Edge Vehicle.
Soldiers or disaster response field personnel, coupled with mobile phones turned autonomous ground sensors, can capture the seen and unseen world around them with elements ranging from wireless infrastructure to photos of the population. That data is transmitted to ArcGIS, residing in Azure and using Azure Cognitive Services to apply artificial intelligence to the collected data. The AI-processed results are fused with ArcGIS’s spatial analytics, and become actionable across the ArcGIS platform, including pushing results forward into the tactical vehicle’s displayed ArcGIS Operations Dashboards. Operations Dashboards can be quickly created by anyone and custom built for all roles in a mission.
“Esri’s cloud-based platform enables networks of sensors to be analyzed geospatially, and coupled with Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, allows for that sensor information to be analyzed around the clock supporting various roles from the edge to the intelligence centers,” said Lily Kim, General Manager, Azure Global at Microsoft. “This delivers the type of data insights to customers in the field that they require to respond effectively in today’s fast paced world.”
“Microsoft has provided a great opportunity for us to demonstrate the rapid deployment of our geospatial capabilities, providing both online and offline capabilities to our customers in disaster management and those forward supporting humanitarian and national defense missions alike,” Tim Murphy, Director of Contextual Intelligence at Esri added.
Cloud computing has opened up more versatile and efficient ways of deploying technology to different types of work environments and infrastructures by setting organizations free from the reliance on a central server. Market research firm Forrester recognized Esri in The Forrester Wave™: Location Intelligence Platforms, Q4 2018 Evaluation, which acknowledges Esri’s leadership in location intelligence technology and highlights the company’s long-term commitment to innovation in its market-leading geospatial cloud.
“Microsoft’s collaboration with Esri has provided unparalleled value to our customers for over 15 years,” said Murphy. “This new demonstration in the Microsoft Tactical Vehicle brings together how Esri’s technology can fully geo-enable tactical operations for real-time spatial awareness.”
Utilizing the open-standards of these commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products immediately connects ArcGIS compatible partners through ArcGIS to Azure and can be utilized by the tactical vehicle. In this demonstration, it includes Knowledge Bridge International (KBI) for the sensor network, and Meemim’s vGIS utilizing Microsoft Hololens. Both KBI and Meemim are among the hundreds of Esri partners.
Microsoft’s Tactical Vehicle will be on display at the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s 2019 GEOINT Symposium at booth 609. To learn more about how Esri is transforming field operations in defense and intelligence, visit go.esri.com/geointmspr.
About Esri
Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, offers the most powerful geospatial cloud available, to help customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations including 90 of the Fortune 100 companies, all 50 state governments, more than half of all counties (large and small), and 87 of the Forbes Top 100 Colleges in the U.S., as well as all 15 Executive Departments of the U.S. Government and dozens of independent agencies. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most advanced solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com.
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