Award Data

This program addresses a new approach to IR imager that closely mimics biological organisms sense principals, having advantages in sensitivity, energy efficiency, reliability, and cost as compared with the competitive approaches. The innovation is based onincorporation of sensitive polymer-molecular with a highly efficient micro-machined thermal-mechanical PFA that directly converts IR image into ...

The utility of continuously tracking vehicles in a battlefield has been demonstrated during the Gulf War and other recent conflicts. However, the ability to achieve reliable continuous tracking in many environments will require the use of FOPEN radar andefficient use of sensor resources. In this effort we extend current research to include heterogeneous terrain and apply this model to simulations. ...

The Large N ASW problem can be summarized as pervasive short-range sensors with limited communication capabilities. The driving questions are how are false alarms controlled-not necessarily from an individual sensor node, but from the overallfield-performance of individual sensor nodes, the amount of information and frequency of communication. From its inception, distributed detection has produc ...

INTACT is an embedded tool to reduce operator workload un ccomples, information-rich, multi-task operational envbironments as well as an embedded coach for simulation based training. The coach is intended to ensure that a student is able to completesimulated mission task correctly, even when unsupervised during extracurtricular practice sessions.

The effects of poor usability range from mere inconvenience to disaster. Human factors specialists employ usability analysis to reduce the likelihood or impact of such failures. However, good usability analysis requires usability reports that are rarelycollected, rarely complete, and difficult to analyze.Aptima and the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (U. Mass. Amherst) have partnered ...

Undersea sensors require means of transporting data to an end-user. Acoustic modem networks are being developed for this purpose, but they are limited by battery power, network priorities, and requirements for clandestine operations. We propose a systemsapproach to reducing the impact on the network of moving large volumes of data, using both low rate and high rate acoustic telemetry, combined w ...

This proposal will enable the most efficient integration of NASA?s semiconductor lasers into strategic optical systems. To protect laser lifetimes and increase performance, these lasers will require isolators to protect them from back-reflections, similar to the isolators in all fiber-optic networks. This work proposes to monolithically integrate magneto-optical isolators with semiconductor platfo ...

In this project, a lightweight membrane mirror device will be integrated into an adaptive control system, capable of correcting static and dynamic primary-mirror shape errors in a space-based telescope. The core innovation will be the use of a multi-zone, deformable mirror fabricated by thin-film surface micromachining. Contour shape of the mirror membrane will be controlled by an array of electro ...

Conventional Hall thrusters are difficult to scale to very small sizes. The proposed concept is a new type of compact plasma accelerator that addresses these scaling issues. It resembles a Hall thruster, taking advantage of the heritage of this proventechnology, but the current is driven inductively. It has the advantage of needing no cathode. While inductive coupling has been successfully dem ...

Cermet, in collaboration with researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, proposes to implement a lattice matched III-Nitride technology using existing substrates. The implementation of a lattice matched substrate promises to produce near dislocationfree III-Nitrides for the first time while the use of an existing substrate technology dramatically lowers development cost and reduces the devel ...