Sterling Heights-based DRIVE Developments Inc. said Wednesday that it had delivered the first successfully demonstrated end-to-end embedded diagnostic system to the United States Army.

The integration of this technology will assist the soldier in the timely and accurate maintenance of vehicles and form the baseline for common diagnostics across vehicle platforms. This diagnostic system will gather the necessary data to allow the vehicle to determine and even predict its own failures.

The company executed a $2.9million program through the Program Manager for Medium Tactical Vehicles that started in September 2007 to develop the next generation of U.S. Army onboard vehicle diagnostics.

DRIVE -- an acronym for Diagnostics Research and Innovative Vehicle Engineering -- said it delivered a militarized version of the its commercial product four months ahead of schedule in successful demonstrations of the system for Army personnel this past month.

DRIVE is hoping the momentum of their recent success will propel them into a multi-year production contract for this diagnostic system. DRIVE is currently working with the Army to develop the next phase of this program.

"When I came to the military market 4 years ago I saw the need for this type of system," Osentoski said. "I spoke extensively with the U.S. Army leadership and found they were frustrated with the amount of time it was taking to develop and procure a diagnostic system. I recall one general asking why the commercial markets were so far ahead and why the military could not utilize the technology."

All of this is why, last year, Osentoski started his own business.

"Other businesses were taking too long to respond, largely because diagnostics are not their core business," he said. "I recognized that a company focused on diagnostics and prognostics would succeed. Too many firms had incorrectly focused on the sexier end game of prognostics and not spent enough time on the basics of actually getting the data necessary to build these complex prognostic algorithms. For this reason most systems failed to impress, and for that matter, failed to work at all."

DRIVE develops hardware and software in a proprietary Parallel Development Process that it says other firms have not been able to replicate.

"The key for us is our team and our process," Osentoski said. "That is why DRIVE can produce new products to beyond specification in about half of the time that it takes other organizations."

DRIVE provides commercial and military vehicle diagnostic systems complete with GPS, wireless communications and numerous vehicle diagnostic data bus interfaces. DRIVE aggregates this data in its DIME (Diagnostic Information Management Environment) Data Center and provides clients secure Web based access to detailed data from their vehicle platforms.

More at www.drivedevelopments.com or www.dimeportal.com.