Award Data

Viable Gear will provide proof-of-concept for a seaweed-based bioplastic to be used in manufacturing a compostable biotwine for marine equipment, designed to replace petroleum-based plastics. This addresses NOM-SBIR research topic area 9.3, The Changing Ocean - specifically to "support increased protection and restoration of marine and coastal habitats to enhance vital ecosystems", by helping decr ...

Sonalysts will develop the Radiation Adaptive Monitoring System for Exposure Safety (RAMSES). RAMSES will be a simple application able to run on a variety of handheld devices with a data connection to a range of possible commercial radiation detectors. It will provide stay time and health hazard decision-making support for emergency responders exposed to unknown or varying radiation fields. RAMSES ...

This project aims to create a general-purpose readout architecture that will allow the rapid deployment of next generation detection systems. The system will be based on the development of a programmable general-purpose integrated circuit (GPIC) that has the front-end electronics required to read out signals from a variety of radiation detectors, especially next generation scintillators and semico ...

This work aims to push the commercialization of perovskite crystals in a direction that is useful to the warfighter.  H3D will rely on Actinia, a startup company that is bringing the perovskite inventions from Northwestern to market to provide samples of perovskite.  Actinia will grow the crystals and fabricate the contacts and H3D will do final assembly and testing of the detectors.  H3D will ...

The feasibility of developing an optically-based sensing system that is capable of noninvasively characterizing pulsed magnetic fields with single-millimeter spatial resolution either inside or external to a cavity exposed to x-ray or gamma radiation will be investigated. An optical-fiber-coupled sensor will be designed, fabricated, and experimentally verified to meet or exceed desired sensitivit ...

In this SBIR project, we will develop an efficient, low-cost, rad-hard imager of ionizing radiation (focusing primarily on gamma-rays during Phase I but also expanding to fast neutrons during Phase II) that has high angular (< 2°) and energy resolution (< 2% at 662 keV) that can be handheld (< 4 kg system mass) and has a low operating bias (< 200 V) for its sensing pixel elements. Current radiati ...

Global Optimization of Graph Learning Structures (GOGLS) is a platform- agnostic method of globally optimizing search graphs from individual autonomous agents using techniques derived from federated learning. The GOGLS mission and focus will be to provide a learning framework for robots to share search information and in essence, see through the eyes of their neighbors.  The GOGLS system relies o ...

SoarTech proposes DeepCounter: a system that automatically learns UAS and C-UAS behaviors across multiple tasks using DRL within a 3D simulation environment. Our system addresses several gaps in applying state of the art DRL to learn C-UAS and UAS behaviors. First, our existing DRL framework extends the state of the art to work with variable numbers of heterogenous agents. Our work in Phase I will ...

The TARgeting Distributed Sensors for Situational Surveillance (TARDIS3) program will study the feasibility of sensor-leakage techniques to enable explosive event detection without relying on friendly human or technological assets. Specifically, we propose placing targeted advertisements through public marketplaces that request and surreptitiously exfiltrate the sensor data needed to detect and lo ...

Handheld radioisotope identification instruments (RIIDs) are an important, front-line tool for passively detecting, locating, and characterizing radioactive materials and thereby helping to prevent the spread of illicit nuclear materials. Border patrol, customs, and law enforcement personnel, along with warfighters, demand an enhanced, more sensitive RIID capable of integrated gamma and neutron de ...