Award Data

Current methods for inspecting the external surfaces of low-observable (LO) aircraft are time consuming and error prone. Technology that can reduce inspection times and minimize human error will benefit the Air Force by increasing assessment reliability and aircraft availability while reducing maintenance costs. To address this need, Intelligent Automation (IAI) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU ...

There is an urgent need to develop and demonstrate innovative control, design and analysis techniques to characterize the stability and performance of a system of systems (SoS) as a function of sub-system dynamics, network structure and control/decision processes. This is particularly true in the missile defense scenario, which involves a coordinated defense against threats. However, there is no e ...

DfR Solutions and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) have formed a team of experts in solder joint reliability and gold embrittlement to perform a series of experiments that will provide the data necessary to create mechanistic reliability models. Critical to any application of these models and of interpreting experimental results is the ability to determine solder joint gold contaminatio ...

Gold contamination in Circuit Card Assembly (CCA) solder joints leads to brittle intermetallic compounds (IMCs), which is one of the major factors in solder joint failure. The conventional rule of thumb considers 3 wt% of gold (Au) as a safety threshold, which is not always reliable due to varieties of package platforms, solder types, reflux settings, operational and environmental conditions, etc. ...

Circuit card assembly (CCA) reliability is dependent on solder joints, which join components to printed circuit boards (PCBs). Board users strive to mitigate risks associated with gold-embrittled solder joints. Enig Associates, Inc. (ENIG), in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, proposes to develop a risk-forecasting tool for quantifying the risks associated with gold-embrittled sold ...

Our Phase I work focused on improving modeling and simulations so that the impact of autonomous systems in the battlespace could be better understood. As we have trained our attention on Phase II, it has become increasingly clear that the work we are doing to improve the modeling and simulation of autonomous systems also provides significant leverage for the development of the intelligent behavior ...

Technology Assessment and Transfer will demonstrate the potential of novel, low friction and low wear coatings that are capable of providing long term durability for air cycle machine foil bearings. A systematic approach with a high probability of success includes the following: unique low friction, wear resistant alloys and lubricating ceramic composites, magnetron sputtering, the ideal method fo ...

Oceanit proposes to develop and demonstrate novel, tailored, designer separator materials with optimized properties to maximize lithium-ion cell/battery performance, life, safety and reliability.

In our Phase I program, JEM and ASU will demonstrate a low cost manufacturing process to achieve the full theoretical hesitivity of a magnetic film that would enable greater effective hesitivity laminate. In Phase II we will develop a viable continuous process for two such materials to achieve light weight, low cost, and improved radiation efficiency; and we will seek to productize this process to ...

For machinery control systems, forensics is a vital part to provide a cyber-protection strategy and aid in identification and troubleshooting of system malfunctions due to malicious and non-malicious events. A number of unique challenges exist for the forensic analysis of SCADA based systems. Components of a SCADA system are often resource constrained. In addition, SCADA based systems have a criti ...