A Sherbrooke, Quebec-based company received nearly $640,000 for an artificial intelligence (AI) contract that could assist with future space stations, such as Canada’s efforts for the proposed NASA Gateway near the Moon.
Menya Solutions Inc. recently was awarded a Space Technology Development Program contribution from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), which is expected to last up to three years.
The money will be used to develop a Menya AI technology, called HybridLogic, to let robots plan and execute goal-driven actions autonomously, ideally for use on a future space station for astronauts. Gateway is the next big project that the CSA has signed up for, after contributing to the International Space Station (ISS) for decades.
The CSA traditionally secures astronaut seats on missions by providing space robotics built by Canadian companies, and more and more these robotics use AI and machine learning to perform tasks. Menya’s AI work was used to optimize operations and provide services to industry, governments and public organizations for more than 10 years before it was acquired by Levio, a business and IT consulting company, for an undisclosed amount in July 2019.
“This project will help Menya Solutions improve the technology towards commercialization,” said Menya CEO and founder Froduald Kabanza in an interview.
As an example, he pointed to a longstanding collaboration between Menya, MDA and the CSA for autonomous robots and AI.
MDA, of course, is well-known in the space community for Canadarm (a set of space shuttle robotic arms), Canadarm2 (an ISS robotic arm), Dextre (a robotic assistant on the ISS) and the forthcoming Canadarm3 that will be used on Gateway. MDA received a contract for Canadarm3 in June; Canadarm3 is expected to use AI to continue to perform repairs and maintenance to Gateway even when astronaut crews are not present.
Kabanza said the new contract will allow Menya to develop machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to “expand the capabilities of HybridLogic”, which he expected would also help with current customer contracts.
“HybridLogic currently can demonstrate autonomous operations in complex simulations and laboratory environments,” he added. “At the end of this project, we expect the technology to demonstrate useful autonomous robot operations in industrial settings, in assembly tasks, infrastructure inspection, and manipulations.”
Levio’s headquarters are in Quebec City and the Canadian Business Growth 500 ranking pegged it as the second-fastest growing company in 2019, Kabanza said. When Menya was acquired, Levio used the situation to launch an AI division to assist with digital transformations for various industries.
“Before the acquisition by Levio in 2019, Menya was a small team,” Kabanza said. “Levio is a company of over 900 employees working in many areas of digital transformation. The larger company size, combined with the impetus of this contract from the CSA, will help Menya strengthen and maintain its competitive advantage in AI algorithms for autonomous robots, which is an important segment of our AI technology portfolio and service offering.”