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Fiber-shaped dielectric elastomer actuators can be formed into artificial muscle to realize high actuation forces and large displacements. The actuator needs an electrode geometry which applies radial electric field over the whole fiber length without constraining its deformations. The electrode gap below 20 microns is needed to operate under moderate actuation voltage. In addition, practical fibe ...

The goal of this SBIR project is to develop plug-and-play query-based platform that provides a general and scalable solution to CAD-CAE and CAE-CAE interoperability problems. The approach is based on the following observations: (1) the shape and material information in any CAD model may be abstracted by a finite collection of queries -- formally defined and computable functions -- that eliminate t ...

The goal of this SBIR project is to demonstrate a general and scalable plug-and-play query-based solution to CAD-CAE and CAE-CAE interoperability problems. The approach is based on the following two observations: (1) the geometric, topological, and material information in any CAD model may be abstracted by a finite collection of queries -- formally defined and algorithmically implemented computabl ...

Blood-based point-of-care (POC) diagnostics or remote diagnostics that require specialized equipment only available in centralized, commercial laboratories are currently limited by major logistical and technical barriers. Blood collection can be a traumatic, inconvenient, and inconsistent process that is based on decades-old technologies, such as the lancet-puncture, that are not amenable to new P ...

Blood-based assays require upstream mechanisms to acquire sample from a patient, extract the analyte of interest, and preserve the analyte until it can be quantified. Current point-of-care assays overwhelmingly rely on lancet puncture, which is inconvenient because of the presence of blood that is open to the environment and induces high levels of user error inherent with the multiple steps requir ...

Computation of the radiative transfer model for a hyperspectral sounder with thousands of spectral channels is very time-consuming. Consequently, operational data assimilation systems can assimilate only a few hundred channels. The radiative transfer model is very suitable for GPU implementation to take advantage of GPU massively parallel computing capability, where radiances at various channels c ...

A bi-stable meta-material which rejects high amplitude harmful sound but transfers sound levels needed for the situation awareness is proposed. A threshold intensity of the sound is determined by the material design and is set to 90 dBA all signals exceeding this level will be attenuated at least at 25 dB. More specifically, the material is composed by meta-structural elements having two stable s ...

ORBITEC proposes to develop functionally graded metallic lattice components for use in advanced rocket propulsion systems. The FGMLC material will utilize an internal intertwined lattice structure to join different constituents of the composite material. This lattice structure will allow a designed gradation from one material to another while maintaining each materials properties. The FGMLC will u ...

nPoint proposes to design and construct a closed-loop 2mm range-of-motion, 2-axis nano-positioning system with unprecedented precision and resolution. There is considerable need for such a tool in near-future nanomanufacturing, characterization, and lithography. One example is scanned-probe tip-based nanomanufacturing. As such manufacturing comes to commercial fruition, accurate long-range positi ...

The dynamics of turbulent combustion processes necessitate the measurement of multiple quantities simultaneously, but measuring multiple variables generally requires multiple laser-based diagnostics. Combining temperature and velocity measurements in a single diagnostic offers the opportunity for greatly increased understanding while minimizing experimental expense and complexity. ORBITEC and the ...