Emerald Sky Technologies LLC was formed in 2007 to transfer innovative avionics technologies from academic research centers to the marketplace. 

eSky's first product is OZ , a graphical primary flight display (PFD) licensed from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC).  OZ has been proven to provide superior performance in instrument flying tasks compared to conventional instrumentation (the traditional "six-pack") and modern PFDs in intgrated avionics systems.  Emerald Sky received its first NASA SBIR award to develop the OZ PFD.

http://sbir.gsfc.nasa.gov/SBIR/abstracts/06/sbir/phase1/SBIR-06-1-A1.05-8854.html?solicitationId=SBIR_06_P1

In 2008 eSky was awarded a NASA SBIR award to develop H/OZ, a hybrid system that integrated the OZ PFD with the H-mode collaborative flight control technology developed at NASA Langley Research Center. 

http://sbir.gsfc.nasa.gov/SBIR/abstracts/07/sbir/phase1/SBIR-07-1-A1.02-9543.html?solicitationId=SBIR_07_P1

eSky was awarded a NASA SBIR grant for 2009 to develop automated crew functional state metrics which measure the degree to which the crew is capable of full performance, which may be degraded by fatigue, distraction, hypoxia or other factors.  This effort is unique as it uses operational rather than physiologic metrics to monitor crew functional capability.

http://sbir.gsfc.nasa.gov/SBIR/abstracts/08/sbir/phase1/SBIR-08-1-A1.05-8676.html?solicitationId=SBIR_08_P1

eSky recently won a $90,000 award from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program to support enhancement of the H/OZ inner loop controller software as part of its crew functional state metrics project.

http://www.mtech.umd.edu/news/press_releases/mips_r43_release.html

Finally, NASA recently announced an SBIR phase 2 award to eSky to continue development of H/OZ for another two years.  eSky intends to develop a product prototype that incorporates the OZ PFD and supports real-time dynamic reallocation of functions between pilot and automation based on crew state metrics.

http://sbir.gsfc.nasa.gov/SBIR/abstracts/07/sbir/phase2/SBIR-07-2-A1.02-9543.html?solicitationId=SBIR_07_P2

In January 2010 the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program announced an award of an additional $90,000 to implement advanced control strategies in the H/OZ inner loop controller.

eSky's ongoing strategy is to develop OZ and other advanced avionics products either to produce them as standalone systems or to license them to existing integrated avionics producers.

eSky has established partnerships with IHMC (www.ihmc.us) and Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc. of Hampton, VA
(www.ama-inc.com) to develop OZ and OZ-related technologies.

(Revised 25 March 2010)