Award Data

Orion requires a rendezvous and docking sensor to provide relative navigation information during proximity operations and docking. In order to dock, the sensor must provide full six degree of freedom (6 DOF) relative position and relative attitude information at a rate sufficient for the rendezvous spacecraft guidance system to robustly control the docking maneuver. Orion faces critical weight iss ...

The development of a non-contact measurement system is of particular importance to implementing an automated method for thickness measurement of critical coatings on internal/external aircraft composite structures. The objective of the proposed research project is to continue development of a non-contact measurement technology and produce a fully functional prototype device for use in robotic app ...

The development of a robotic sanding system is of particular importance to implementing an automated method for sanding critical, high performance coatings to final thickness and surface finish requirements on internal/external aircraft composite structures. The objective of the proposed research project is to continue development of robotic sanding technology and produce a fully functional proto ...

The Global War on Terrorism is increasing pressure for DOD depots to expedite the return of serviceable weapon systems to the warfighter while maintaining or decreasing maintenance costs. Each military service has responded to this challenge by undertaking enterprise-wide logistics modernization programs. Efficient data capture and programmatic data input is a primary obstacle in the production ...

Many Department of Defense (DoD) weapon systems are operating beyond their original design specifications, resulting in failures requiring unplanned parts, materials and sustainment procedures. Such U.S. Air Force weapon systems are collectively denoted as aging aircraft. A large number of aging aircraft in conjunction with newer weapon systems are overhauled, repaired and reused directly or ind ...

Many AEDC personnel are tasked with supporting facility operations by providing testing support, instrumentation support, facilities engineering and facilities maintenance. This requires personnel to spend some of their time in their normally assigned work areas and portions of their time in and around test cells, wind tunnel control areas, and on the wind tunnels themselves. The AEDC plant area ...

The AEDC Engine Test Facility (ETF) has more than 20 test cells that can be used for testing prototype propulsion systems and components. A variety of rotating machinery, including compressors and pumps, is crucial to wind tunnel operations. The unplanned failure of a major component can have a major impact on testing schedules. As such, there is significant motivation to avoid unplanned outag ...

The AEDC Engine Test Facility (ETF) has more than 20 test cells that can be used for testing prototype propulsion systems and components. The testing of propulsion systems requires significant data acquisition capabilities, with one test utilizing more than 4200 channels of instrumentation, including 200 dynamic strain gages. In response to the sheer set-up challenge, AEDC has developed the conc ...

CFDRC proposes to develop a comprehensive, high-fidelity commercial quality simulation tool for modeling the melt infiltration process in Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) manufacturing. The code will accurately predict the transient melt infiltration process with tightly-coupled detailed physics-based component-level and micro-scale models for the infiltration front and solidification in the porous ...

The primary objective of this effort is to design and develop a platform enabling the analysis of terror networks using a novel systems-biology based Boolean Pseudo-Dynamics (BPD) framework. This platform will involve development of strategies to identify the critical individuals within the terror network using both static centrality based, and BPD based dynamic metrics that account for an individ ...