Award Data

The U.S. Air Force is interested in developing hypersonic vehicles including reusable transport aircraft, cruise missiles, and unmanned systems. Hypersonic flight regimes result in multifaceted and very difficult design challenges that can be encapsulated into an aerothermoelastic problem, which is a complex interaction of structural, thermal, and aerodynamic mechanisms. When a flexible structural ...

This Phase I STTR proposal describes the development of a dual frequency millimeter-wave sun tracking radiometer designed to measure total atmospheric attenuation from ground level to the top of the atmosphere.The suns brightness temperature, which is on the order of 10,000K at millimeter-wavelengths, provides an ideal background reference allowing high dynamic range estimation of total atmospheri ...

This is a prototype system that will take raw observation data, detect and characterize maneuvers, and use reinforcement learning to understand and react to evasive RSO behaviors in near real time. This will provide a framework to evaluate autonomous behavior strategies, such a safety, effectiveness, and robustness to manipulation. This work will enable surveillance operators to distinguish betwee ...

The DF&NN team has significant experience in delivering Space Domain Awareness tools. These tools will be applied to 2 years of GEO ephemeris data of active satellites at DF&NN. The RDESB prototype will reduce the risk in rapidly discovering the behavioral patterns of potentially evasive and/or ambiguous active resident space objects. RDESB will detect non-Keplerian behavior in ephemeris data for ...

Space superiority requires space protection and space situational awareness (SSA), which rely on rapid and accurate space object behavioral and operational intent discovery. The focus of this project is to develop a stochastic approach for rapid discovery of evasive satellite behaviors. Designing the innovative decision support tool has numerous challenges: (i) partial observable actions; (ii) eva ...

In response to the challenges described in AF173-CT05, Applied Defense Solutions (ADS) and the University of New Mexico (UNM) (equivalently, the ADS Team) propose to research and develop innovative validation and verification (V&V) algorithms for spacecraft GN&C. The ADS Team is unique in that it brings operational flight GN&C software experience (ADS) with cutting edge research on algorithm V&V ( ...

ColdQuanta is partnering with Dr. Zoya Popovic at the University of Colorado, Boulder, to develop a three-dimensional quantum-enhanced radio-frequency (RF) signal sensor and direction finder. Our approach combine Rydberg-atom-based RF electrometry and discrete lens arrays (DLAs) of planar antennas. The DLA will serve as a Fourier optic for an incident wave, and a Rydberg-atom RF electrometer will ...

The widespread use of Aqueous Film Forming Foams (AFFF) at DOD facilities for firefighting, training, and fire suppression systems has resulted in numerous contamination sites. The perfluoroalkyl (PFA) compounds used in the AFFF, such as perfluoroalkyl sulfonates (PFOS) and perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFOA) are extremely stable in the environment and have been shown to be resistant to typical ...

Because of rising demand for human analysts and more efficient processing of increasingly large and challenging amounts of intelligence, human limitations on mental workload, cognitive fatigue, and attentionor task engagement, need to be accurately monitored in real-time in order to provide sensitive detection of impaired cognitive states. It is a challenge to continuously monitor these cognitive ...

Increased workloads and operational pressures can degrade human analysts cognitive performance, jeopardizing their ability to safely and effectively carry out mission-critical tasks. To avoid overload and maximize the potential of human operators, a method for conducting real-time evaluation of cognitive state, combined with means to dynamically enhance performance, is required. Novel technologies ...