Award Data

Development of a general purpose software interface between cognitive models and 3D virtual environments requires innovation and research in cognitive abstractions and interfaces, as well as a thoughtful application of software architecture and engineering principles. We propose to embed these innovative cognitive abstractions in a middleware layer that offers “plug-and-play” operation for ar ...

Adventium has created a trust-driven engineering solution that will enable assured deployment and control of million-plus scalable lightweight cybercraft to help maintain US freedom of action, and deny freedom of action to our adversaries. Our constraint-based approach reduces uncertainty by identifying robust architectures and configurations that can satisfy mission requirements for large-scale d ...

The objective of this Phase I SBIR effort is to develop and demonstrate a low cost, low weight, two independent simultaneous transmit beam antenna for use in SATCOM systems like the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) downlink. The current MILSATCOM system supports one downlink antenna beam in the frequency band 20.2-21.2 GHz. The goal of TSAT is to transform communications s ...

Aqwest proposes to develop novel, high-performance thermal energy storage (TES) technologies and a TES integration concept for thermal management (TM) of directed energy weapons (DEW). In particular, we will develop a packed bed (PB) and sorption-based (SB) TES concepts, and a TES integration into a high-performance (HP) thermal management system (TMS), each offering unparalleled compactness and ...

The primary goal of Phase I of this SBIR is an exploratory development to determine the instrument requirements needed to measure neutral winds in the upper atmosphere (90-300km) by passively measuring the Doppler shift of atomic oxygen airglow emission lines with a field-widened Doppler Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne interferometer (DASH) instrument aboard a satellite platform in low Earth orbit. ...

Ascent Solar Technologies (AST) proposes to take the next step in spacecraft solar array development, building upon previous development to make the definitive thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) device for high-efficiency (> 20%) and high-specific power (greater than 2000 W/kg) when combined with lightweight and flexible substrates. AST will develop wide-bandgap cadmium selenide (CdSe) as a high-effic ...

The Air Force Research Laboratory Air Vehicles Directorate needs to be able to rapidly develop hypersonic vehicle concepts and to do so with as little risk as possible. A new technology called Rapid Prototyping will assist the Air Force in reducing risk in choosing the best path for fielding hypersonic vehicle systems. This technology will allow the rapid testing of many concepts, thus adding conc ...

The US armed forces need an environmentally friendly, quick, effective, and non-destructive method to remove paint from plastic and carbon fiber composite surfaces. An earth friendly paint removal process for painted metal is also desired by many commercial sectors such as aviation, marine, and automotive applications. Current processes for the removal of paint from composite materials are slow, e ...

This proposal describes the development and fabrication of a step and stare mid-wave infrared (MWIR) imaging system. The system employs ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) optical shutters and a 3x3 array of lenses for imaging one of nine different look directions onto a focal plane array. Each image tile represents approximately a 6 degree by 6 degree field of view. By virtue of its architectur ...

ABSTRACT: A non-mechanical technique for steering the field of view of lidar sensors is being proposed. This coarse steering technique allows the field of view of active sensors to be moved in precise discrete steps. The ability to scan over ±20° in one dimension has been demonstrated. For Phase II, this capability will be extended to two dimensions and implemented as a compact package. Th ...