Geminus has been selected by AFWERX for a SBIR Phase I contract focused on physics-informed AI for microgrid and battery optimisation to address the challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF)
The award extends a platform already running across large-scale energy infrastructure into battery storage and grid management as a wave of new demand hits the grid.
The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by implementing process improvement changes in contract execution.
The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR programme in 2018, which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and now, Geminus will begin creating and providing innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defence of the United States.
Geminus is the AI orchestration layer for intelligent twins. Digital twins were bespoke projects that were built by hand, calibrated once, and were often out of date the moment the real system changed. Geminus can make digital twins repeatable, reliable, and rapid, grounded in physics, aware of their own certainty, and fast enough to optimise live operations, even on systems that age and change.
Greg Fallon, CEO of Geminus, said, “Every digital twin used to be a bespoke project, so most industrial systems never got one. We made intelligent twins repeatable, reliable, and fast enough to act on in real time. Storage is where the grid’s biggest problem gets solved or gets stuck.”
For the Air Force, Geminus is set to build and intelligent twin of a forward-deployed microgrid: diesel generators, lithium-ion batteries, and shifting mission loads. It hopes to achieve longer battery life, consume less fuel, and deliver reliable power where it is mission critical, with Phase I opening the door to a follow-on pilot.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of War, or the U.S. government.
