The startup, whose founder previously served in the German military, has developed a product similar to Amazon Firestick for traditional defense equipment with a software stack. ARX Robotics claims its system can turn old equipment into AI-powered devices, such as self-driving trucks.
Back in June of this year, ARX raised a €9 million seed round with support from Project A Ventures and Discovery Ventures, and lead investor NATO Innovation Fund.
ARX first developed an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) and won a very large contract with the German military government, in this case for deployment to Ukraine.
The company has now launched ARX Mithra OS, an AI-based operating system that transforms military vehicles into intelligent, interconnected and autonomous units. The OS comes with hardware cameras and sensors that can be mounted on military trucks and similar vehicles. ARX Autonomy Kit also comes with over-the-air updates.
Marc Wietfeld, founder and CEO of Arx Robotics and a former member of the German Army, told TechCrunch that while “the battlefield of the future is digital,” European and other Western He said countries' militaries continue to procure analog systems that have nothing to do with modern battlefield systems. .
“We were primarily building software and hardware for unmanned systems on the ground. The problem was that when we were on the front lines in Ukraine, especially with NATO forces, we were building software and hardware for unmanned systems, They found that new war assets such as sensors, software, and AI were unable to interconnect or work with existing fleets.”
He pointed out that the German military had acquired 3,500 Mercedes trucks, but “there is nothing that can be done with software.” Nothing is interconnected. There's not even a radio there. ”
“So we invented a kind of Amazon Firestick for the existing conventional fleet of NATO forces. So we're building robots, but we're also robotizing existing vehicles.” he said.
In the context of the war with Ukraine, it became clear that interconnected autonomous systems are now of vital importance in modern warfare. But NATO's arsenal is outdated and European forces are under-resourced.
Wietfeld claims that the startup has no known competitors in the space, saying, “Instead of having an affordable and time-consuming alternative, we want to upgrade what we already have. And it doesn't matter if it's a Toyota in the Ukrainian army or a Leopard tank in the British army or a Challenger tank. They need to speak one language with an open interface.”
The opportunity here is to turn the vehicle into a “wingman” with fleet intelligence, situational awareness, and other aspects of modern warfare.
“The increased appetite for military spending after the Russian invasion has waned, and countries have set different priorities or simply don't have the budget. So instead of just investing in new technology, we need to update existing materials.” , adapting it to modern warfare will be key,” Lt. Gen. Frank Reidenberger AD, CEO of BWI, the Bundeswehr's IT service provider, said in a statement. .