Low - Cost Neuromorphic Edge Intelligence for Persistent Autonomous Change Detection and Machine Situational Memory

SBIR topic DAF27BZ02-DV017 (U.S. Department of Defense – Air Force), Phase I and II. Open to U.S. small businesses. Opens: December 2, 2026. Closes: January 6, 2027. Traditional airborne ISR architectures frequently collect and transmit large quantities of data even when little or nothing within the observed environment has changed. This creates substantial burdens on: Communications bandwidth. Processing. Storage. Power. Analysts. Command-and-control systems. Neuromorphic and event-driven sensors offer a fundamentally different sensing architecture in which the system responds primarily to changes within the observed environment. The desired capability should combine event-driven sensing with onboard edge intelligence and temporal machine memory. Fundamental engineering considerations include: Event-driven/neuromorphic sensor characterization. Low-latency onboard processing. Low power consumption. Detection of operationally relevant changes. Rejection of irrelevant changes caused by lighting, weather, vegetation, shadows, sensor motion, or environmental clutter. Temporal comparison across repeated observations. Persistent representation of previous environmental state. Confidence scoring for detected changes. Autonomous prioritization of significant changes. Ability to cue additional onboard sensors. Generation of compact change products instead of continuous raw-data transmission. Multi-UAS sharing of relevant environmental changes. Open interfaces for integration with aircraft mission systems. Desired change classes may include movement, addition, removal, modification, displacement, construction, damage, altered activity patterns, or other Government-defined changes. Official solicitation: https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/topics-app/