Scientific Systems Company, Inc, an industry leader in advanced autonomy solutions, announced the addition of Tom Frost as Sr. Vice President of the Products Division. Frost brings a long record of hardening cutting-edge robotics technology for worldwide battlefield deployment. He will oversee daily operations of the Product Division and its strategic growth.
Frost, an early member of the iRobot team, helped develop and transition the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) PackBot robot from a prototype to full-rate production and battlefield deployment. Working search and rescue with the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR), Tom brought PackBots to their first real-world fielding on Sept. 11th at the World Trade Center Disaster site. Shortly thereafter, Frost deployed with the U.S. Army Rapid Equipping Force (REF) to use PackBots in searching caves and bunkers in the mountains of Afghanistan. Today, thousands of PackBots are deployed around the world, saving countless lives with counter-Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), recon, and hazmat operations.
Tom Frost, former Teledyne General Manager of Unmanned Ground Systems, joins SSCI as SVP of the Products Division.
After serving as iRobot’s General Manager for Defense, Frost went on to become the President of Endeavor Robotics. His team was successful in capturing multiple Programs of Record and delivering thousands more robots to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. After Endeavor Robotics was acquired by FLIR and subsequently FLIR by Teledyne, Frost served as General Manager of the Unmanned Ground Systems business unit.
“Today, the U.S. and our allies are faced with new threats from near peers that render existing systems and approaches obsolete,” said Scientific Systems President Kunal Mehra. “We are at the dawn of a new era for unmanned systems, where artificial intelligence deployed at the edge will enable these systems to operate at ‘machine speed’ in highly contested environments with minimal operator workload,” Mehra continued, “Scientific Systems is leading this revolution with innovations in AI, autonomy, and machine learning. Today, we are beginning to transition these advanced capabilities to the warfighter across each of the Department of Defense services. Tom’s experience hardening cutting-edge technology for deployment is a perfect fit.”
“The future of the battlefield is undeniably unmanned,” said Frost. “The autonomy and AI technology that the engineers at SSCI are developing is not only impressive, it is the critical enabling technology that will make unmanned systems an overmatch capability. I came to SSCI because they are best in class. We need to get this to the warfighter as quickly as possible.”
SOURCE: PR Newswire