Award Data

New developments in materials and components create a need for more effective controllers for flexible, lightweight, high-performance systems in DoD, industry, civil infrastructure, and space applications. Included are automated loading and material handling systems, tank flexible gun barrels, vibration and oscillation in automobiles, bridges, and overhead cranes. The control problems associated ...

Automated Cynamics Corporations (ADC) proposes to exploit its knowledge of automated in-situ consolidation of thermoplastic carbon fiber unidirectional tape to reduce the high scrap rate currently experienced in the in the fabrication of thermoset (epoxy) carbon fiber sabots. The current production process requires several steps which result in material loss (scrap) of approximately 60-70%. App ...

N/A

A number of techniques currently exist for computing rotorcraft aerodynamic flow fields. These range from very fast lifting line schemes which only include the simplest incompressible, inviscid modules for rotor-blades and wake, to full CFD compressible, inviscid potential free-wake methods which are moderately fast, through full compressible Euler/Navier-Stokes methods for rotors and bodies, whi ...

While the applications of a three dimensional coordinate measurement system are diverse, such a system will be particularly useful in reporting driver hand position and head movement coordinates. The coordinate information is used to evaluate driver behavior and performance in the new generation of instrumented vehicles where the driver engages in manipulation of specific equipment. Having devel ...

The wavelet transform has generated excitement among researchers from a wide range of disciplines. Wavelets have an extremely rich mathematical foundation and have been proven valuable for a variety of applications. New ideas are being pursued at a breathtaking pace leading to innovative algorithms. The challenge before us now is to identify and harness these ideas and develop a coherent set of ...

Disability is the nation's largest public health issue; with over 35 million Americans experiencing disability and annual disability-related costs exceeding $170 billion. Planning for the efficient and equitable allocations of state and local rehabilitation services has generally been inadequate, however. Geographic information systems (GIS) approaches have the potential to dramatically improve ...

For more than three decades, transportation planners have relied on survey data collected specifically for the development of travel forecasting models, which are expensive to collect and maintain on an ongoing basis. There is a plethora of data collected for other reasons that could potentially support transportation planning which is becoming more accessible through technological advances. Use ...

N/A

The proposed effort will evalute acoustic sensing methods to monitor and diagnose impending problems in drive components on the ALTAIR Spacetrack antenna. Various acoustic sensing techniques that have been researched but never applied to such a structure will be investigated. The problem of using acoustic measurement techniques is that most of the data expected from an ALTAIR or similar system i ...