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U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center and ESRI Collaborate on Geospatial

Published Aug. 15, 2008

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Topographic Engineering Center (ERDC-TEC), and Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) will collaborate to design and build innovative prototypes to demonstrate the next generation of geospatial technology in U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Battle Command applications. TEC and ESRI signed a cooperative research and development agreement for the project this month.

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Topographic Engineering Center (ERDC-TEC), and Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) will collaborate to design and build innovative prototypes to demonstrate the next generation of geospatial technology in U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Battle Command applications. TEC and ESRI signed a cooperative research and development agreement for the project this month.

This core research will influence the use of geospatial technology in combat systems throughout the DoD and will significantly contribute to the design of the next generation of geospatial capability in command and control applications.

TEC, an Army Geospatial Knowledge Center, conducts research and development on how to use geospatial technology and expertise to provide the warfighter with superior knowledge of the operational environment. ESRI is the world leading technology firm for geographic information systems (GIS); geospatial modeling and analysis and service-oriented architecture for spatially-enabled applications. The company also has extensive experience in geospatial research and engineering. This cooperative agreement brokers each organization’s complementary strengths.

"TEC's ability to provide the warfighter with a superior knowledge of today's complex and everchanging operational environment depends, in part, on a productive marriage of our geospatial tools, talent, and military geospatial business logic with complementary commercial geospatial information  technology,” says Bob Burkhardt, TEC director and recently-appointed Army Geospatial Information Officer. “Our partnership with ESRI allows us access to powerful software, database, systems, and architectural concepts critical to our continued success as an Army Geospatial Knowledge Center."

“ESRI has enjoyed many years of successful collaboration with TEC,” says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. “We look forward to working with TEC to design these pioneering prototypes that will support a new generation of defense geospatial capability.”

TEC and ESRI will combine their skills and resources to design and develop prototypes of new Battle Command data management and decision support tools. Areas of joint research include:

  • Design of mobile geospatial applications that take advantage of server technology for data updates and synchronization when connected and also operate as independent, stand-alone units when disconnected.

  • Preparation of image services for ArcGIS Server that exploit BuckEye imagery-a combination of high-resolution color images and LIDAR data that supports ISR and tactical operations. BuckEye imagery is a proven, critical geospatial resource used by Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • Design the architecture and create several advanced technology defense prototypes that improve the ability of command and control systems to operate with geospatially-aware battlefield objects, improve server technology that provides tactical situation awareness, and facilitate the use of geospatial technology in the analysis of human intelligence.

TEC and ESRI will jointly attend technical work groups and exchange meetings to communicate to other defense and intelligence agencies the results of the research and engineering of the Battle Command geospatial technology developed under this agreement.


Release no. 08-004