Sophia and Armada link terrestrial and orbital edge processors

PARIS – Mobile edge computing specialist Armada and Sophia Space are working together to establish integrated, scalable compute infrastructure extending from Earth to space.

By connecting terrestrial and orbital edge processors, the partners intend to “create a seamless edge-computing network that connects remote locations on Earth with computing resources in space,” according to the Sept. 11 news release.

For drone warfare, for example, Sophia can quickly fuse satellite observations with terrestrial data sources, Brian Monnin, Sophia co-founder and chief growth officer, told SpaceNews by email.

In addition, computing capability in low-Earth orbit offers redundancy, surge capacity and emergency restoration for Armada Galleons, Monnin said.

Armada Galleons are rugged terrestrial data centers for Armada Edge Platform, a hardware and software stack designed for AI applications.

Galleons and TILEs

Through the partnership, Armada Galleons will be linked with Sophia Space’s TILE orbital compute modules and Sophia Orbital Operating System. TILE, a platform designed for low-latency, energy-efficient AI processing, is the foundation for Sophia’s scalable infrastructure.

“This partnership extends the edge into space, enabling real-time operations anywhere they’re needed — on Earth and beyond,” Armada CEO Dan Wright said in a statement.  

Sophia Space CEO Rob DeMillo said the partnership will lead to “a fully autonomous, on and off planet compute fabric that thinks, adapts and acts in real time.”

Space-based edge processing, once rare, is being adopted widely. Many companies already offer ground-based edge computing resources.

Until now, the terrestrial and orbital edge nodes have been established separately, making it “time-consuming and expensive” to make them work together, Monnin said. “Armada and Sophia will be seamlessly integrated, saving developers time with new applications.”   

With AI processing and adaptive learning, the edge processing infrastructure will continuously improve, according to the news release. In addition, the platform will “route packaged data to minimize latency while dynamically optimizing computing power to meet environment-specific demands.”

For security, the edge-processing infrastructure will “feature optical communications, end-to-end encryption and a zero-trust framework,” the news release said.