Polaris Aero's VOCUS Safety Intelligence Platform

Polaris Aero is proposing research to revolutionize aviation Safety Management. Polaris Aero is proposing the modification of their proactive aviation Safety Management System (SMS) to a predictive SMS using Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML). The key to aviation safety is not just capturing data to find trends but to understand what the data represents, how they relate to each other and provide actionable insights to mitigate risks. Providing the right information and risk mitigation measure before an incident occurs will save time, resources, and lives. Modifying Polaris’ VOCUS Safety Intelligence Platform with AI/ML will provide faster, more reliable actionable insights based on the large amounts of data generated by the aviation community. VOCUS centers around the Safety Management System which pushes and pulls data to applications used by pilots, schedulers, and maintainers for daily activities. An AI/ML enhanced VOCUS platform will find safety trends, relationships, and mitigation measures faster and more accurately than relying on just safety officers. AI generated mitigation measures can automatically be presented back to the pilots and maintainers through VOCUS applications used for daily tasks.

The potential NASA application will integrate Polaris Aero's modified VOCUS Safety Intelligence Platform with NASA's In-Time Aviation Safety Management System. The modified VOCUS platform will use AI/ML to increase the speed and accuracy of safety monitoring, risk assessments and provide tailored risk mitigation recommendations throughout the aviation community. The final product will ensure safety information is provided to the right people, at the right time, in the right amount to make better decisions.

Potential non-NASA applications include commercial, Federal government and Department of Defense VOCUS Safety Management System users. Users of Polaris Aero's VOCUS platform will benefit from increases speed and accuracy in predicting and mitigating aviation risks.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 6) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.