Technology Title
Combating Global Corrosion with Dual-Use Sensor Technology for Maintenance Readiness
Tech Focus Area
CBM+/Predictive Maintenance
Abstract
AmbientSense is combating dual-use global corrosion challenges by developing an innovative, scalable, and affordable sensor-based corrosion monitoring solution that reduces maintenance costs, improves asset reliability, and mitigates system failure risk through data-driven insights and AI predictive modeling.
Problem Statement
Corrosion remains one of the Department of War’s most costly maintenance challenges, consuming approximately $20 billion annually. Maintenance organizations lack affordable, scalable methods to monitor atmospheric corrosivity.
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Description of the Innovation Solution
AmbientSense’s solution is an affordable, scalable atmospheric corrosivity sensor and AI-driven software that make proactive corrosion prevention economically viable. The technology combines sacrificial conductive sensing elements with RFID-based interrogation to provide quantitative measurements of environmental corrosivity without wiring or fixed monitoring infrastructure.
AmbientSense sensors are designed to be 20-100x lower cost than traditional corrosion-monitoring solutions, enabling deployment at scale across critical assets and generating the large environmental datasets required for predictive maintenance and machine-learning-driven corrosion forecasting. These fieldable sensors and the data they generate support CBM+.
The true innovation lies in a fundamentally altered approach to asset management. By replacing slow, manual visual inspections and sparse data from legacy coupons with rapid, widespread digital data collection, AmbientSense allows for easy experimentation and scaling. Capturing the environmental precursors of degradation at scale has the potential to deliver the type of big-data and machine-learning breakthroughs that have revolutionized other major industries.
Benefits to the DoW
AmbientSense supports maintenance modernization through better atmospheric corrosion monitoring. By enabling low-cost deployment at scale and supporting data-driven maintenance decisions, the sensors preemptively address corrosion issues. The technology is inherently cross-service.
Innovation Challenges
Key challenges include transitioning the sensing architecture into manufacturable products that operate over UHF RFID, while maintaining lowcost deployment. Additional challenges include generating large-scale field datasets to refine corrosivity models and predictive maintenance applications.
Technical Maturity / Demonstration Results
Technical maturity has advanced through laboratory and field testing. The original technology was based on a licensed Navy patent from NIWC Pacific. Accelerated corrosion testing validated predictable degradation relationships, resulting in a jointly filed provisional patent application with NIWC Pacific through a CRADA. The technology is currently TRL 4 and has been deployed through the WACHD Initiative, including deployment on the USV Ranger (DOLUS Program), ANTX Coastal Trident, and multiple DoW stakeholder evaluations.
