Award Data

The technical objective of this effort is to design and build a set of Unattended Radiation Detection Systems to satisfy multiple end-users and environments. From the detector landscape survey and testing results achieved in Phase I, there are three suitable node configurations being proposed for further development. Each node spiral will consist of end-user interviews and operational testing to d ...

To protect marine mammals from ship strikes and sonar exposure, human watchstanders maintain a tedious and costly visual lookout, which is impossible on unmanned vessels like Sea Hunter. Automated video search avoids human fatigue while detecting surfaced marine mammals, and automated acoustic search detects mammals below the surface, but both approaches have limitations: cameras are affected by o ...

The inability to plan in real-time is a major reason why robot manufacturing is restricted to high-value, high-volume products, in carefully engineered factories where robots blindly repeat pre-programmed trajectories. Today, robots simply cannot generate collision-free motion on the fly. We are solving this core problem—real-time motion planning in unstructured, fluid environments and on divers ...

The Advanced Electronic Development Program (AEDP) will develop prototypes of photonic and digital components. Under AEDP, electronic equipment will be developed and prototyped, with components integrated for a capability demonstration. This work will be performed under the Phase II SBIR program.

The proposed approach will complement photovoltaic elements on small satellites to provide additional power during periods of eclipse.

Vacuum Electronic Devices (VEDs) represent the most compact and efficient means of generating high power RF available today. Unfortunately, the legacy electronics required to operate these VEDs remain large, heavy, and often unreliable. The transition to solid-state, high voltage electronics, spearheaded by Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) over the last 20 years, has improved VED transmitter r ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Ship groundings can cause sever environmental damage to the delicate ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, and beaches. At present, survey work is performed by hand – a method that is inefficient and difficult to perform reliably. Improved bottom survey tools are clearly needed to evaluate the extent and type of damage and assist in determining remediation efforts. ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: NOAA and the National Weather Service maintain an immense network of automated maritime, surface, and upper-air observing stations throughout the world and at great expense. These automated stations provide regularly updated data for both short-term weather prediction and long-term climate models. Maritime and surface observations occur as frequently as every 10 to 20 minutes, ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Buoyancy driven oceanographic gliders, although reasonably cost effective, have challenges operating in the zones due to high gradients in water density. Under this topic, Riptide will provide a cost-effective autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) design leveraged from Riptide's family of man-portable AUVs that can more effectively map the hypoxic areas. The stated goals of this to ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Creare proposes to develop a self-sustained small-scale power conversion system to power NOAA’s weather monitoring network stations located in harsh uninhabited locations. Our miniature heat engine will take advantage of the existing year-round thermal gradients found between water and air in Arctic regions. Our baseline approach is the development of a compact Turbo-Rankine ...