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A Reactive Controller for Harvesting Gust Energy (RECHARGE) for Small UAS

Award Information

Agency:
Department of Defense 		Branch:
Navy 		Award ID:
 Program Year/Program:
2010 / STTR
Agency Tracking Number:
N09A-025-0019 		Solicitation Year:
2009 		Solicitation Topic Code:
N09-T025 		Solicitation Number:
2009.A
Small Business Information
Area I, Inc
1590 N Roberts Rd Suite 203 Kennesaw, GA -
View profile »
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 2
Fiscal Year: 2010
Title: A Reactive Controller for Harvesting Gust Energy (RECHARGE) for Small UAS
Agency / Branch: DOD / NAVY
Contract: N00014-10-C-0407
Award Amount: $730,430.00
 

Abstract:

Area-I, Inc. and Penn State will continue the development and testing of our Reactive Controller for Harvesting Gust Energy (RECHARGE) for small UAS. The Phase I implementation has already undergone high-fidelity simulation-based testing. These tests demonstrated that the system can increase the range, endurance, and survivability of currently manufactured UAS. The RECHARGE system incorporates an innovative real-time technique for estimating local airmass motion, a multi-objective guidance strategy, and a state-of-the-art adaptive control architecture to enhance small UAS range, endurance, and survivability, even in extremely gusty conditions. Core features include: 1) Real-time, on-board, local airmass motion estimation, 2) Waypoint following to enable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) or other primary missions, 3) Gust energy extraction to increase range and endurance, 4) Gust load alleviation for enhanced survivability in volatile atmospheric conditions, 5) Adaptive flight control that provides guaranteed Lyapunov stability, even with changes to vehicle dynamics or operations in highly uncertain environments, and 6) Ease of portability to different vehicle types. Phase I results yielded positive and often substantial improvements over conventional control systems. The RECHARGE system was also shown to be highly-portable, as simulation-based testing was performed on highly disparate UAS with successful results.

Principal Investigator:

Nicholas Alley
President
(404) 983-1002
nalley@areaiinc.com

Business Contact:

Hilary Beeston
Chief Financial Officier
(770) 789-8776
hbeeston@areaiinc.com
Small Business Information at Submission:

Area I, Inc
349 Spring Hill Dr. Canton, GA 30115-

EIN/Tax ID: 264000341
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees:
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
Research Institution Information:
Pennsylvania State University
2540 Dole Street
Hall 402
Honolulu, HI 96822-
Contact: Jacob W. Langelaan
Contact Phone: (814) 863-6817