Technical appendix · for diligence calls
Hardware, verifier, cryptography.
The investor brief is at /investor. This page is the audit-trail backing for the claims on that page — built for technical reviewers, not for the cover read.
Hardware specFrom the partner sessions · 2026-05-14 post-NDA
Per cell~1.0–1.5 V (AA/AAA-class), lower current than conventional chemistry
Standard pack3–4 cells in series → 3 V at 1 mA or lower (≤3 mW class)
MaterialsNo rare materials needed. Supply-chain and ESG profile beat conventional sensor batteries.
Power topologyCells power the transitional sensor only. MCU + networking on separate power. Electrically independent inside the same enclosure.
Refill cadence~2 weeks at 40–50 % ambient humidity. Effectively zero refill in high-moisture regions. Software flags which packs need refill — no manual rounds.
MCUArduino UNO R4 WiFi — Renesas RA4M1 (Cortex-M4 @ 48 MHz) primary + ESP32-S3 co-processor for Wi-Fi / BLE. USB-C, 14 digital pins, 6 analog. Firmware port + internal-resistor removal in flight.
CloudCloudflare private cloud (no hyperscale lock-in, no data-training on customer signals).
Zones (canonical)bioechem:field-a (outdoor) + bioechem:greenhouse-1 (controlled environment). Tenant isolation per Durable Object.
Prototype hardwareSnapshot 2026-05-15 — what's actually wired today
The current shipping prototype that produced the < 1 cm flooding / ~20 min alarm demo number runs on commodity parts. No bespoke silicon required to reproduce.
MCUArduino UNO R4 (WiFi variant). Renesas RA4M1 Cortex-M4 @ 48 MHz, with built-in ESP32-S3 for Wi-Fi / BLE. USB-C, 14 digital pins, 6 analog. Pivot dated 2026-05-14 (replaced earlier PIC32WM-BW1 reference from 2026-05-07).
SensorALS-PT19 analog light sensor (photodiode) on A0. Biological-battery cell drives the sensing path; MCU + WiFi run on independent power until the WiFi firmware port lands.
Current build stateCable-tethered USB serial @ 9600 baud. Working sketch reads A0 and prints reading. Non-WiFi today; the WiFi MCU port is the next firmware step.
Code provenanceWorking sketch lives with Dr. Pei Zhang + Keerthi Vemula Murali (Worcester Polytechnic Institute). All hardware spec changes coordinate through partner channels under the mutual NDA signed 2026-05-14.
The Arduino UNO R4 WiFi firmware port is in progress as part of this round. When deployed, readings POST directly to /r/{node_id} on this router and appear in the live /swarm/greenhouse-1 dashboard within one sample cycle.
Partner verifierStateless Python sidecar · partners run on their own infrastructure
For IBM, agricultural insurers, USDA-style auditors, distributors, or any third party who needs independent confirmation of what a zone is reporting — the router publishes signed sync ticks and proof bundles, and we ship a stateless verifier partners run on their own infrastructure. No tenant secrets cross the line. Partners re-fetch the live data, re-compute the KPIs from raw node readings, walk the signature chain, and produce their own attestation envelope.
- Three commands to verify: run-once · verify · bundle-into-Merkle-root
- ~1.8k LoC Python across 5 modules + CLI; 120+ unit tests
- RFC 6962 Merkle audit bundles for 24-hour evidence rollups — partners archive the root, prove inclusion later
- Mismatch verdicts (
match · mismatch · stale · no_data) when the router's claimed counts diverge from the recomputation
Read the 3-command verifier walkthrough →
Cryptography envelopeHardware-rooted, hybrid classical + post-quantum
- Per-node identity — hardware-rooted (on-die secure element), ECDSA P-256, private key never leaves silicon
- Per-reading signature — Ed25519 classical signature on every event
- Bundle co-signature — ML-DSA-65 (FIPS 204) post-quantum signature for partner-archived envelopes
- D-KaP seal — every successful HTTP response carries a hybrid seal envelope in headers, independently verifiable at /seal/pubkeys + /seal/verify
- HMAC chain — proof bundles are HMAC-signed for offline verification by partners holding the shared anchor
From signal to board briefingCompound Python tool layer · 470 tests green · tsc clean
Every reading flows up a deliberate pipeline so operational signal becomes investor-grade KPI without a separate reporting stack. Every layer reads stable JSON from the layer below; no new wire formats, no glue code. Tool names below are implementation handles for code-review readers; the customer-facing surface is the briefing PDF, not the tools.
fleet_health_diff — per-zone health composite (online + ack + flagged + drift + relay-replay)incident_triage — ranked incidents with attached operator playbookswarm_replay — forensic replay with HMAC chain verificationquote_evidence_builder — signed evidence package for any buyer / partnercatalog_publisher — IBM Q2 catalog manifest + auto-generated Watson.x Orchestrate skillsrevenue_attribution — 3-tier payment matching (buyer+listing → buyer-only → skill-hint)partner_scorecard — 4-axis composite, platinum/gold/silver/watch tiersquarterly_rollup — NRR, logo retention, top-10 concentration, HHIpricing_optimizer — RAISE / LOWER / SUNSET_CANDIDATE / HOLD heuristicsboard_briefing — fixed-shape one-page board briefing
Agent architecture26-component canonical taxonomy
The BioSwarm side runs on a 26-component canonical taxonomy covering orchestration, mesh routing, hardware identity, state, events, health, duty-cycle, calibration, anomaly scoring, audit, and recovery. ~24 of 26 are production-built today. Full breakdown lives on /agents.