Jonathan Hudgins

Federal Deployment Strategist

Scale AI is dedicated to helping the Department of Defense (DoD) compete, fight, and win by providing high-quality, government-owned data that can power any AI/ML and autonomy effort.&nbsp;A first step towards this goal is organizing the DoD data layer. Technologies still relatively new for the DoD - like cloud computing and data repositories - are a good start. These are insufficient however, to provide the DoD with data processing capabilities required to fuel large-scale autonomy operations.&nbsp;Scale can provide the next critical layer in the software stack which can bring autonomy efforts out of the labs, into production, and onto the battlefield.
Beyond developing, training, and deploying individual autonomous systems, taking the time to &ldquo;get the data layer right&rdquo; can have broader impact, such as enabling the creation of &ldquo;Data Annexes&rdquo; to go along with Operational Plans (OPLANs).&nbsp;These would allow DoD leaders to provide the US Army&rsquo;s autonomous vehicle fleets with key, pre-validated datasets for critical operations in theater. These would include theater-specific perception models (LiDAR, camera, radar), segmentation-mapped avenues of approach, Order-of-Battle class and type IDs for detection and recognition, EO and SAR imagery mapped to friendly schemes of maneuver, and much more. With a single update, a vehicle fleet would be prepared to move out.&nbsp;
Scale provides the data and machine learning operations (MLOps) pipelines for the world&rsquo;s most ambitious robotics and autonomy teams.&nbsp;As the DoD explores novel approaches to human-machine teaming, it will require a sophisticated, government-owned data strategy with dedicated tooling.&nbsp;This will provide the numerous vehicle platforms and programs with the highest quality data to drive production-grade autonomy. Getting this right is a precursor to mission success.&nbsp;
Scale provides an open data architecture and MLOps pipeline in alignment with the DoD Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), decoupled from vehicle ownership.&nbsp;This allows the US Government to reuse training data and algorithms developed within Scale platforms for other programs. Thus the DoD can create a &ldquo;data flywheel&rdquo; that strengthens as more programs develop production-grade autonomy.
<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fe0438815ba51486bbb6a202747122d4b%2Fceb82bb90c4741f2a98cdc32b2de19a4">
Scale currently executes billions of <a href="https://scale.com/guides/data-labeling-annotation-guide" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">annotations</a> per month, maps 3,800 kilometers of roads per week, and leads the industry as the AI perception data provider. Scale partners with self-driving vehicle companies training and building systems ranging from small delivery vehicles to long-haul trucks. Our partners include Kodiak Robotics, Voyage, Optimus Ride, Toyota Research Institute, Embark, General Motors, Honda innovations, Oshkosh, and Nuro - the first autonomous ground delivery vehicle to receive <a href="https://scale.com/customers/nuro" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DoT approval</a> for public roads. Additionally, Scale is helping to develop autonomy in other unique domains, including maritime vessels (<a href="https://scale.com/customers/sea-machines-robotics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sea Machines</a>), autonomous drones (<a href="https://scale.com/customers/skydio" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Skydio</a>), and autonomous warehouse systems (<a href="https://scale.com/customers/otto-motors" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OTTO Motors</a>).&nbsp;
Through our in-house capabilities, direct partnerships, and an extensive subcontractor network; Scale collects, curates, and <a href="https://scale.com/guides/data-labeling-annotation-guide" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">processes</a> more ground truth perception data than any other company in the world.
We are a $7B company with real-world applications at high levels of mission-readiness. Scale has over 700 employees focused on cutting edge ML development, human-machine teaming, content understanding, and novel applications for machine learning in the commercial and federal sectors. Our Modular Open System Architecture reduces cost and time to deployment, increases opportunities for iteration, and allows the government to pick and choose the tools and data it needs, all while maintaining full data rights.
Jonathan Hudgins is a member of the Federal Team at Scale where he focuses on bringing Scale&rsquo;s proven commercial solutions to solve Federal Government problems. Jonathan is a former active duty Air Force officer and F-15E Fighter Pilot.

Autonomy Table Stakes:  DoD’s Data Layer

Scale is the AI Infrastructure provider of record for the commercial autonomous vehicle (AV) industry, powering nearly every American commercial AV company’s perception and AI efforts. This experience informs our approach to defense autonomy applications.&nbsp;The development of successful Army Autonomy programs largely hinge on two factors:&nbsp;<ol><li>AI Data Management. Deliberate collection, curation, processing and enterprise management of vast amounts of real-world, AI-ready training data.</li><li>Enterprise ML Ops Infrastructure.&nbsp;Comprehensive, end-to-end infrastructure to develop, train, test, validate, deploy, and continuously iterate on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) models.</li></ol>We currently execute billions of <a href="https://scale.com/guides/data-labeling-annotation-guide" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">annotations</a> per month, HD map 3,800 kilometers of roads per week, and are the industry leading AI perception data solution across the globe.&nbsp;Scale partners with self-driving vehicle companies training systems from small delivery cars to long-haul trucking and up-armored military vehicles. Our partners include Kodiak Robotics, Voyage, Optimus Ride, Toyota Research Institute, Embark, General Motors, Honda innovations, Oshkosh, and Nuro - the first autonomous ground delivery vehicle to receive <a href="https://scale.com/customers/nuro" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DoT approval</a> for public roads.&nbsp;Additionally, Scale is helping to develop autonomy in other unique domains, including (but not limited to) maritime vessels (<a href="https://scale.com/customers/sea-machines-robotics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sea Machines</a>), autonomous drones (<a href="https://scale.com/customers/skydio" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Skydio</a>), and autonomous warehouse systems (<a href="https://scale.com/customers/otto-motors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OTTO Motors</a>).&nbsp;Through our in-house capabilities, direct partnerships and an extensive subcontractor network, Scale collects, curates and <a href="https://scale.com/guides/data-labeling-annotation-guide" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">annotates</a> more ground-based perception data than any other company in the world.&nbsp;Synthetic data can be created and used to train against unique edge-cases that Army autonomous vehicles would face in the field, and data from various sources can be fused and mapped for unparalleled autonomous perception.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;We are a $7B company with real-world applications at level 9 technology readiness. Scale has over 700 employees focused on cutting edge ML development, human-machine teaming, content and understanding, and development of novel applications for machine learning in the commercial and federal sectors. Our Modular Open System Architecture reduces cost and time to deployment, increases opportunities for iteration and upgrade, allows the government to pick and choose the tools and data it needs, and the data rights remain with the government.&nbsp;Scale supports the US Government in upholding democratic ideals. We’ve already done it with many other DoD organizations.Come talk to us at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) conference in Washington, DC from 10-12 October, 2022 (booth 4032), check us out on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/scaleai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, or <a href="https://scale.com/sales" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">contact us directly</a>!Jonathan Hudgins is a member of the Federal Team at Scale where he focuses on bringing Scale’s proven commercial solutions to solve Federal Government problems. Jonathan is a former active duty Air Force officer and F-15E Fighter Pilot.

Through our in-house capabilities, direct partnerships and an extensive sub-contractor network, Scale collects, curates and annotates more ground-based perception data than any other company in the world.

Jonathan Hudgins

Autonomy Table Stakes: DoD’s Data Layer

Scale AI: The Data Platform for Autonomy