Investing in Swarmbotics: Networked Attritability 

​While much of the focus in 2024 has been on aerial swarms, the lessons learned and technologies used have significant crossover potential for ground autonomy. The use of swarms in ground operations will enhance mobility and resilience in contested environments. Ground-based swarm technology is essential for future warfare, especially in scenarios where large-scale, coordinated unmanned operations could overwhelm traditional defenses. 

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“We should never again trade blood for first contact”

 

General James Rainey

Commander - US Futures Command

 

So far the attention in ground autonomy has been focused on retrofitting existing larger UGVs. Price points in the segment are too high to allow for swarm aggregation and develop the full potential of UGVs. Modern UGV swarms must be capable of achieving unsupervised autnonomous operation – at a price point that unlocks attritable operation at scale.

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Enter Swarmbotics AI, a company combining a passion for ground robotics and deep experience in autonomy with a radical focus on attritability. Swarmbotics is building the Attritable, Networked, Tactical Swarm (A.N.T.S.) system to bring a wide array of capabilities to an expansive range of UGV mission sets. Using the experience in self-driving cars and trucks, Swarmbotics is successfully transferring the learnings in commercial autonomy to the military domain.

  

There are few stronger examples of founder-market fit than Swarmbotics’ founding team: Stephen Houghton is a Marine Corps veteran who was previously the Head of Autonomous Vehicles at AWS, and his Co-founder and CTO Drew Watson, is a robotics and AI expert with experience at NASA, JPL, and Embark Trucks. When we met Stephen and Drew at Swarmbotics’ headquarter in Phoenix, we were equally impressed by the team of laser focused professionals that had joined them on their journey.

 

It is exceedingly rare to meet a team that is as mission-driven and passionate about solving a problem. We are proud to partner with Stephen, Drew and the team as they take robotic ground swarming to the next level.