Award Data

Providing power for dismounted soldiers on long-duration missions remains a critical technical challenge. Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells convert hydrogen fuel directly to electric power and offer a lightweight and efficient power source for individual soldiers. However, technology for storing the hydrogen fuel is still too heavy to meet the Armys mission requirements. We propose to ...

Small manned and unmanned aircraft need advanced propulsion technology to increase mission capabilities and improve reliability. We propose to develop an innovative recuperator technology that can significantly reduce fuel consumption for small gas turbines. Our microchannel recuperators are built using advanced manufacturing techniques that will enable a compact, inexpensive recuperator to signif ...

The Army uses Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) for the location and tracking of enemy soldiers and vehicles. The sensors can often determine range and relative bearing to the signal source, but without knowing its own orientation, these data cannot be converted to source geo location and ground track. There is therefore a need for a sensor to determine the UGS azimuth, roll, and pitch relative to a ...

The targeting accuracy of mortar rounds is critically dependent on obtaining accurate gun barrel azimuth and elevation data to feed to the fire control system. Current barrel attitude determination is not sufficiently accurate and requires manual readouts. Creare proposes to build a sensor for the determination of azimuth and elevation using novel MEMS rate gyros and inclinometers. These highly ac ...

Titanium addresses the Army's need for high strength-to-weight characteristics and can meet the performance and transportability requirements of future lightweight systems. There are initiatives to develop low-cost titanium materials supplies, however, low-cost and high-rate fabrication processes are sorely lacking. Welding and joining technologies enable improved manufactured components by re ...

Soldiers in the field require compact portable combustion-fired devices for cooking and heating, but existing hardware is not capable of using the logistics fuels (JP-8 and diesel) that are most readily available in forward locations due to the atomization and evaporation characteristics of these heavy fuels. An innovative fuel delivery device is proposed that will generate fine aerosols of logis ...

Accurate estimations of the height and velocity of precision airdrop systems are required to control final deceleration maneuvers. Airdrop systems have a limited deceleration window, so robust and reliable estimations are required. Radar, sodar, and lidar sensors have been evaluated for this role with varying degrees of success. Foliage and vegetation prove troubling for many of the sensors. H ...

The Army needs to maintain the health and effectiveness of soldiers in hot environments. We propose to help soldiers drink enough by providing them with individual cooling elements (ICEs) to chill beverages. The innovation is a lightweight ICE based on a regenerable absorption refrigeration process. Absorption refrigeration provides high cooling power per unit mass of refrigerant and requires no ...

Solid State Scientific Corporation is pleased to propose a Phase II program to develop a unique spectral imaging sensor prototype that will simultaneously image sixteen color bands at video rates. This Phase II approach will capitalize on the design concepts created during the successful Phase I effort. The novel spectral imager will operate in the visible to near-infrared (VIS/NIR), have a 17º ...

Creare proposes to complete the development of a system that will simultaneously enable two-way voice communication while monitoring sound exposure to the ear for soldiers working in high noise environments. Current Army artillery crews are forced to work in close proximity to cannons that produce in excess of 180 dB of impulsive noise, which can result in noise-induced hearing loss after brief e ...