In partnership with the Office of the Secretary of Defense Manufacturing Technology (OSD ManTech) and the ARM Institute’s fellow Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MIIs), the ARM Institute hosted an event at our facility in Pittsburgh centered on Point of Need Manufacturing Challenges. This event included an OSD-led Requirements Workshop and pitch presentations from MII project teams that were selected from the associated MII Point of Need Manufacturing Challenge Project Call. As part of the event, the ARM Institute also hosted an evening reception for attendees, which showcased ARM Institute project demonstrations. The Institute also hosted a Community of Practice Meeting, which was open to the MII Executive Directors.
This meeting convened key stakeholders from OSD, including BG David Trybula of Army DEVCOM and Dr. Karl Dahlhauser of OUSD(R&E) Science & Technology Futures, and representatives from the Joint Staff, the Services, and Defense Agencies. The event and associated Project Call take critical steps towards finding solutions to Point of Need Manufacturing Challenges. The event also strengthened connections between OSD leadership and the MIIs, as well as providing insights into MII member organization solutions.
The MIIs and their members are uniquely positioned to catalyze impactful solutions for the Department of Defense. This event and the associated Project Call showcased the MIIs’ unique capability to convene critical stakeholders and rapidly collaborate with Institute Members to find and propose technology solutions.
In the next few weeks, the judges from the Pitch Challenge will select projects for funding. The selected projects will then be demonstrated in either a cold weather (i.e. arctic-type) location or a hot-humid location. The DoD will determine a location within the continental United States (CONUS) and the solutions must be able to operate in both conditions.
About the ARM Institute
The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) 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 390+ 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.