Award Data

ABSTRACT: Busek Co. Inc. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) propose to explore the physical limits of ionic liquid propulsion via development of new theory to explain effects of close packing emission density and to predict performance limits. The research is motivated by observations and tests demonstrating that emission from 2-dimensional porous surfaces yields order of magnitude g ...

ABSTRACT: The Phase II technical objectives follow directly from the Phase I effort, where all tasks necessary for RF photonic receiver fabrication were demonstrated. The Phase II effort will pursue two major objectives: 1) further development of SEO100 EO polymer based chips, packaged devices and arrays in collaboration with University of Dayton (antenna designs), taking advantage of multiphoto ...

ABSTRACT: LongShortWay Inc, Boston University, and Applied Communication Sciences propose to develop a dynamic multi-sensor learning system that can adaptively detect target types and activities and schedule sensors to optimize the detection rate BENEFIT: Improved detection rate, increase field of view

ABSTRACT: The overall technical objective of this Phase II effort is to develop computational tools for computing response sensitivities of parametric multi-disciplinary air vehicle systems that exhibit nonlinear dynamic behavior for use in gradient-based optimization, smart sampling, uncertainty quantification, and risk assessment. To this end, the ZONA/MIT team will extend the 2-D ZEUS time-dom ...

ABSTRACT: The objective of this proposal is to develop efficient sensitivity analysis methods based on adjoint techniques for multi-disciplinary time-dependent problems. The approach is based on the discrete adjoint, which is derived and implemented on a software component basis, with the various multidisciplinary software components being linked together through a Python interface, thus preservi ...

ABSTRACT: Our objective is to develop a vision system for a micro air vehicle (MAV) or other robotic system that allows it to operate in extremely low light levels, including in zero light conditions and without reliance on GPS. We propose building two systems. The first system will operate primarily in the visible and NIR domain and utilize silicon based photoreceptor circuits. This system will ...

ABSTRACT: Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) and the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) will develop an innovative system to measure and control the cryodeposit layer thickness that develops on cold (~20 K) surfaces in cryogenic radiometric calibration chambers. Currently removing the cryo-layer involves a lengthy process that warms the entire cryo-system to desorb the cryo-layer that incr ...

ABSTRACT: Underground facilities can be used by rogue governments to conceal command-and-control and to manufacture weapons of mass destruction, and are an increasingly important operational challenge to U.S. military forces. Our objective is to determine improved methods of detection essential to address this critical intelligence need. Activity below the ground causes seismic surface waves th ...