Award Data

The evolution of network-centric environments increasingly provides access to more data and collaborators relevant to decision making. Unfortunately, it also means the decision-maker increasingly needs to efficiently and effectively utilize that data in order to stay competitive. In network-centric warfare the consequences of less than optimal performance can be extremely serious. With the deploym ...

Fully autonomous, taskable robots for use in unconstrained environments are still a dream rather than a reality because of a host of problems, including capabilities of existing sensors, effectors, and control/planning software. Indeed, concepts of operations for robot use require that robots collaborate directly with humans, in relationships similar to bomb squad dogs. Fortunately, enough progres ...

Cornerstone Research Group Inc. (CRG) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) will establish the fundamental understanding of materials and mechanical interaction necessary to develop modeling capabilities and fabrication processes for fastening morphing skins. During Phase I, CRG will conduct a broad array of multidisciplinary research ranging from biological systems to emerging me ...

Cornerstone Research Group, Inc. (CRG) and the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) will develop light-activated composite materials technology. This development effort will enable the next generation of military vehicles to quickly and efficiently undergo dramatic reconfigurations as necessary to respond optimally to unpredictable warfare scenarios. Light-activated composite materials technology will ...

We shall investigate, implement and demonstrate MAVIS, a 3D vision system incorporating robust Real-Time SFM for SMAV application scenarios. Automatic pose determination and extraction of 3D structure of the environment are critical to autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance of SMAVs in constrained and crowded environments. Extracting such state information under various constraints (low qual ...

Chemical weapons such as organophosphate (OP) nerve agents pose a deadly risk to military and civilian personnel since they are easily dispersed, they persist in the environment, and are extremely toxic. In addition, OP pesticide contamination causes 1 to 3 million unintentional poisonings annually worldwide. Consequently, there is an urgent need for natural biological systems that can detect and ...

A Phase I effort to investigate the use of poly-crystalline Ge-on-Si and strained SiGe alloy grown on silicon for near-infrared photodetectors is proposed. These devices are expected to cover the spectral band that stretches from a wavelength of 0.8 to 1.6 microns. If reasonable performance devices can be fabricated, this will potentially pave the way for the integration of signal processing e ...

This Phase I STTR effort involves harnessing the power of accelerated corrosion for the purpose of safely neutralizing small arms caches. A key part of the fight against irregular forces is finding their hidden small arms caches and either removing or destroying them. When removal is not possible or practical, destruction in place is the alternative. During Phase I, Lynntech, in collaboration w ...

The remarkable sensitivity, compactness, low cost, low power-consumption, scalability, and versatility of microcantilever sensors make this technology possibly the best solution for container screening. In Phase I, Nevada Nanotech Systems (NNTS) successfully demonstrated all components of a prototype sensor system for measuring the concentrations of unlawful or hazardous materials in shipping con ...

Systems and Processes Engineering Corporation (SPEC) will build and test a solar-regenerative energy storage (RES) system for high-altitude airship applications scaled to provide 160 kW-hr of energy storage with a 16-hour maximum annual discharge and 24-hour charge/discharge cycle. System design incorporates low-loss power conversion and management that maximizes power delivery efficiency and impr ...