Award Data

The Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Automated Track Inspection Program uses optical systems such as cameras or laser-based systems to monitor rail performance throughout the country. These systems are hindered by adverse weather conditions that allow water, dirt and mud to coat their optical components resulting in unwanted maintenance costs. Thus FRA is seeking a low-cost, practical s ...

ABSTRACT: CubeSats provide a new, low-cost platform for space weather missions. They enable new mission paradigms, such as the ability to perform multiple measurements of the same physical phenomena globally from several satellites, in contrast to high accuracy measurements of multiple phenomena on the same spacecraft. Flight-tested neutral wind sensors must be miniaturized to fit into these mu ...

ABSTRACT: To significantly reduce procurement overhead and recognizing the mission strategic importance of developing modular power electronics for interfacing the battery to the spacecraft bus, APEI, Inc. is proposing to develop a novel multi-module, inherently scalable, high power density, radiation-hardened, intelligent battery module. The proposed development will focus on the following main ...

ABSTRACT: Dual-mode scramjet engines must operate over a wide range of flight Mach numbers. Closed loop engine control is necessary to maintain thrust and flame stability while preventing unstart over the large flight envelope. High-frequency sensors and actuators will be a key component of future scramjet Full Authority Digital Engine Controllers (FADECs) due to the short time scales associate ...

ABSTRACT: The objective of this proposal is to develop new techniques for addressing dynamic scheduling needs of a production environment in the MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul) industry where unknown repair issues force continuous schedule modifications. The existing techniques involve detailed work cards set by planning with both skill set and work hours. Changes to these variables requir ...

ABSTRACT: Solid State Scientific Corporation (SSSC) is pleased to propose the design of a multi-threat hostile fire indication (HFI) system for remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA). The HFI system consist of a wide field of view sensor head that employs small multi-spectral imagers in the short-wave infrared (SWIR), with the spectral bands selected specifically for detection of small arms fire (SAF), ...

ABSTRACT: Next-generation thermal management systems in advanced aircraft must utilize all available heat sinks, including fuel, ram air, and bleed air flows to effectively manage aircraft thermal loads. To this end, we propose to develop a compact, highly integrated condenser to prevent heat rejection capacity reduction in very hot environments. The condenser has a built-in thermal switch. Wh ...

State-of-the-art software protection and anti-tamper systems move critical software and data"out-of-band"to the adversary, by using a hypervisor or on"secure"hardware. Unfortunately, the systems running this software are built using untrusted commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) parts. Supply chain threats to critical components, such as hardware or firmware Trojans, have invalidated the assumption tha ...

At present, trains use various dissipative braking systems to slow and stop, and this significant braking energy is ultimately converted to heat and wasted. APEI, Inc. has proposed a hybrid tender which can capture and reuse a significant fraction of this braking energy (at least 50%). The hybrid tender draws power from the rails using a regenerative braking technique rather than by being electr ...

ABSTRACT: The efficient, effective balancing of jet engine rotors and subassemblies continues to be a challenge for key aerospace applications. While manufacturing methods for balancing have improved significantly over the last ten years, measurement methods and procedures and fixturing have not advanced at the same pace. Modern jet engines require multiple parts and subassemblies to be balance ...