The AIM Higher Consortium is a Defense Manufacturing Community led by Catalyst Connection that serves the Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia region.
July 27, 2022 – The ARM Institute is proud to announce the selection of two new ARM Institute Fellows: Jim Clark from ARIS Technology and Christopher Ravasio from ARIN Technologies. The ARM Institute Fellowship program supports the AIM Higher Consortium, a Defense Manufacturing Community. Dr. Jared Glover from CapSen Robotics was selected in 2021 as the ARM Institute’s first Fellow.
As ARM Institute Fellows, Jim Clark and Christopher Ravasio will work on two distinct projects. These projects work to strengthen defense manufacturing capabilities in West Virginia and the Southwestern Pennsylvania region. The AIM Higher Consortium’s mission is to ensure that the United States is unrivaled in military readiness and defense manufacturing capabilities through an industrial production ecosystem that melds advanced metals and materials with Industry 4.0 technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence, and additive manufacturing.
“The ARM Institute is proud to support Defense Manufacturing Communities,” noted Matt Fischer, ARM Institute Senior New Business Development Manager, “These regional clusters are integral for strengthening U.S. defense manufacturing capabilities, and our fellowship program in partnership with the AIM Higher Consortium is critical to advancing much-needed robotics and AI solutions.”
Learn more about each fellow and project below:
Mr. Jim Clark is the technology project manager, Metrology at ARIS Technology. Drawing on 20 plus years of 3D design and metrology experience, he leads a team of industry experts, providing 3D scanning, 3D engineering, rapid prototyping (e.g., Additive Manufacturing) solutions. Previously, Jim was the Business Unit Manager for the Konica Minolta 3D scanning division where he managed all aspects of 3D scanner sales and 3D service businesses in North and South America. Prior to Konica Minolta, Jim was a key member of the R&D team at Maglev, Inc., responsible for the development of Maglev system designs, manufacturing and metrology processes. Jim’s career started off at Jamison Design, where he was in charge of designing a variety of mechanical systems including assembly automation, automotive components, consumer products, stamping dies, and injection molds.
Mr. Clark’s project will center on advancements to a previously funded ARM Institute project: Human-Robot Collaboration in Quality Inspection to Empower Workforce to Easily Program and Operate Automated 3D Scanning. These advancements will enable an effective and efficient method of collecting, preparing, and annotating data for AI modeling and aid in bridging both physical and training gaps between expert roboticists and non-robotics skilled technicians.
Mr. Christopher L. Ravasio is an Electrical Engineer at ARIN Technologies, a startup that has developed a collision avoidance system that utilizes Ultra-Wideband technology to eliminate workplace accidents that occur between human operated forklifts and pedestrian workers as well as other forklifts. In his role, Mr. Ravasio acts as the primary developer of novel embedded systems software implemented in ARINAlert forklift units. He is also the principal product assembler responsible for construction and testing of final product, as well as development of technical manuals and instructions regarding assembly. Mr. Ravasio is also the lead quality assurance tester in charge of verifying reliability of new software and hardware designs.
Mr. Ravasio’s project will develop an out-of-the-box ready robotics navigation system based around Ultra-Wideband positioning with ultrasonic and laser obstacle detection. The system will further develop and repurpose an existing product currently implemented by ARIN Technologies for collision avoidance in the industrial environment to create a fully functioning technology that solves the problem of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM).
About the ARM Institute
The ARM (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing) Institute is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense under Agreement Number W911NF-17-3-0004 and is part of the Manufacturing USA® network. The ARM Institute leverages a unique, robust, and diverse ecosystem of 330+ consortium members and partners across industry, academia, and government to make robotics, autonomy, and artificial intelligence more accessible to U.S. manufacturers large and small, train and empower the manufacturing workforce, strengthen our economy and global competitiveness, and elevate national security and resilience. Based in Pittsburgh, PA since 2017, the ARM Institute is leading the way to a future where people & robots work together to respond to our nation’s greatest challenges and to produce the world’s most desired products. For more information, visit www.arminstitute.org and follow the ARM Institute on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About the AIM Higher Consortium
The AIM Higher Consortium is led by Catalyst Connection and funded by the Department of Defense through the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC)’s Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program. The consortium seeks to strengthen the defense supply chain in the Greater Pittsburgh region of Southwest Pennsylvania and West Virginia. AIM Higher exists to support small and medium manufacturers who are currently working in the Defense manufacturing supply chain or are actively pursuing opportunities in the DoD space. Learn more here.
About ARIS Technology
ARIS Technology aspires to be the brain, eyes, and arms of the future factory. We provide an end-to-end solution for robotically collecting and analyzing 3D data. Our agile and flexible robotic 3D scanning systems are built with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help manufacturers collect metrology-level 3D data with the highest level of autonomy. Meanwhile, we recognize the client’s User-Experience (UX) is everything. To offer the UX with Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC), we deploy advanced technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), digital twins / simulation, and rapid prototyping using Additive Manufacturing (AM).
About ARIN Technologies
ARIN Technologies has developed high accuracy indoor alerting and localization systems to improve productivity and safety in indoor work environments. The company uses patented Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology to achieve GPS-like capabilities indoors at a very low cost, which in turn is utilized by two products. ARINAlertTM is a forklift collision avoidance system that improves worker awareness and reduces forklift accidents involving forklifts, pedestrians, and equipment. ARINTrackTM is an Indoor Positioning System (IPS) that allows customers to track and find company assets in any type of facility. These dual systems mitigate risk and optimize processes for clients by improving visibility and situational awareness. ARIN’s proprietary localization technology is poised to enable the next industrial revolution. ARIN partners with some of the largest industrial companies in the US to deliver these solutions to their customers.