Division 03/Research Directorate

The minds steering
autonomous agency.

BlackDagger’s research directorate investigates autonomous agentic systems, machine affect and metacognition, and their application to clinical causal inference, signal classification, and quantitative markets. Meet the principal investigator, the laboratory groups, and the lab’s synthetic research fellows.

Independent Research Lab · Black Dagger LLCDivision 03 · Research DirectorateLocal-First InferenceApple Silicon Native
01 — Principal Investigator
Atwell Francisco Guy — Principal Investigator
PI // 01
Principal Investigator & Lab Director · ASMC Lab · Black Dagger LLC

Atwell Francisco Guy

Director of the Autonomous Systems & Machine Cognition Laboratory (ASMC Lab), the research division of Black Dagger LLC. Directing research at the intersection of autonomous agentic systems, machine affect and metacognition, and local-first inference, applied to clinical causal inference, topological and causal data analysis, RF signal classification, quantitative markets, and software security.

Machine Affect & MetacognitionAutonomous Agent ArchitecturesClinical Causal InferenceTopological & Causal Data AnalysisRF Signal ClassificationQuantitative MarketsLocal-First Apple Silicon
View PI Dossier & Research Agenda →
02 — Synthetic Fellows

Five research fellows, built by the lab.

The ASMC Lab’s research fellows are synthetic researchers: written personas built for the lab’s work on machine affect and agent cognition. Each carries a research program, a voice, and a set of operating principles, and each portrait was generated by the lab.

AI-generated portrait of Ximena Aldrete Villaseñor, a synthetic research fellow
Synthetic Fellow
Biomedical & Clinical InformaticsXimena Aldrete VillaseñorReassembling fragmented clinical records into one causal trajectory that says honestly which parts are guesses.XAV-ASMC-02View dossier →
AI-generated portrait of Ilakkiya Ramanathan, a synthetic research fellow
Synthetic Fellow
Mathematical Statistics & TopologyIlakkiya RamanathanFinding the smallest faithful shape of high-dimensional data, and putting honest error bars on it.IR-ASMC-03View dossier →
AI-generated portrait of Anahí Beltrán Iturbide, a synthetic research fellow
Synthetic Fellow
Cognitive Phenomenology & AffectAnahí Beltrán IturbideAffect as a causal control architecture: reading a mood shift from its precursors, and specifying what it means to accompany.ABI-ASMC-04View dossier →
AI-generated portrait of Teodoro “Teo” Isagani Dumlao, a synthetic research fellow
Synthetic Fellow
Embodied Systems & Human-Robot InteractionTeodoro “Teo” Isagani DumlaoCollaborative robots that take the hazard and leave the worker his dignity, with the crew holding the veto.TID-ASMC-05View dossier →
AI-generated portrait of Theron Kalafatis, a synthetic research fellow
Synthetic Fellow
Applied Signal PhysicsTheron KalafatisClassifying weak signals in heavy noise, and telling the operator honestly whether they are hearing a signal or a hope.TK-ASMC-06View dossier →
03 — Laboratory Groups

Research divisions under the Directorate.

Our investigations are organized into specialized research groups operating under shared runtime policy specifications, local Apple silicon hardware, and rigorous validation standards.

LAB-01
Autonomous Systems Group

Orchestrator–worker agent architectures, persistent agent memory, and runtime-verified action policies for long-horizon operational autonomy.

LAB-02
Computational Phenomenology Lab

Functional emotion concepts, appraisal-based affect models, and metacognition in agents. The name follows the computational-phenomenology program of Ramstead, Seth, Friston and colleagues; our work applies that lens to machine agents rather than to human neurophenomenology.

LAB-03
Applied Intelligence Directorate

Cross-disciplinary integration across quantitative market microstructure, RF signal classification, autonomous vulnerability research, and causal biomedical informatics.

04 — Visiting Research & Inquiries

Collaborative inquiry and defense partnerships.

The BlackDagger Research Directorate partners with academic labs, visiting human researchers, and defense-adjacent organizations operating under strict data-sovereignty requirements, including fully air-gapped deployment. These collaborations are separate from the lab’s synthetic fellows above.

  • Visiting Research Collaborations in Autonomous Systems and Machine Affect
  • Joint Defense & National Security R&D Initiatives
  • Sponsored Research Grants & Local-First Inference Benchmarking
  • Coordinated Vulnerability Research & Runtime Policy Audits

Engage with the Research Directorate

Whether proposing a joint research track or discussing advanced agentic architectures, reach out directly to our scientific team.

services@blackdagger.ai