Clarifai Earns AFWERX Phase I SBIR Grant for Predictive Aircraft Maintenance

The Department of Defense and U.S. Air Force has awarded artificial intelligence developer Clarifai an AFWERX Phase I SBIR grant for predictive maintenance. Clarifai intends to use the grant to explore the ability of computer vision and machine learning algorithms to accelerate identifying and addressing potential aircraft defects and anomalies.

Citing the DoD’s $78B maintenance spending in 2017, Matthew Zeiler, founder, and chief executive officer of Clarifai, argued that the company’s technology can preserve funds that can be reallocated for military excellence, Clarifai said.

Generally, predictive maintenance minimizes downtime in military and commercial aircraft to ensure their mission-ready state.

The awarding of the grant builds on Clarifai’s existing partnership with the U.S. government of providing expert computer vision products and supporting AI advances within the public sector.