Award Data

Reduced mass materials are critical to the success of aerospace systems. Thus, large air and space structures can benefit from lightweight composite materials. However, their adoption is impaired by the lack of a robust, cost-effective fabrication process, principally because the autoclaves used to consolidate composite laminates are so expensive for large parts. This program develops for US aeros ...

This proposal addresses the design and development of dynamically controlled protein crystal growth payloads for Space Station application. The Space Station will afford the protein crystal growth community the unprecedented opportunity to grow crystals in a microgravity environment for extended periods of time and then retrieve them. This will add a new dimension to determining the structures of ...

The recent performance increases in graphics processing units (GPUs) have made graphics cards an attractive platform for implementing computationally intense applications. With their numerous parallel computational pipelines and SIMD architecture, modern GPUs can outperform high-end microprocessors by one to three orders of magnitude, depending on the problem. Most work to date at EM Photonics a ...

The primary objective of the SBIR effort proposed herein is to develop the hardware and software prototype of a novel high-resolution volumetric three-dimensional (3D) display system that is suitable for visualizing various types of 3D data collected by satellite sensors. The proposed volumetric 3D display technique has a 360 degree look-around group viewing capability and allows a group of viewer ...

ImageCorp, Inc. and its subcontractor M-Vision, Inc. propose to design and conduct a feasibility study of a machine vision system dedicated to the automatic analysis of the drivers¿ glancing direction. This system will be able to determine the beginning and end of the glancing activity in the video sequence, indexed by the subject (functional area of interest), duration, and direction of glance. ...

To move beyond teleoperated control of robot manipulators for ISS assembly and maintenance applications, robot controllers that support interactive learning will be required. It is not possible for ground personnel to anticipate all scenarios in which robot assistants in space will be involved and pre-program their response. It will also be increasingly incumbent on the robot to ascertain the inte ...

The key innovation of this proposal is implementation of a Time Modulated Ultra-wideband (TM-UWB) radio to implement a bi-directional astronaut to spacecraft wireless link. Our innovation will also provide a real-time reading of the position of the astronaut, and with two small conformal antennas on the astronaut, it will provide the astronaut orientation and position in real-time. Within the last ...

In this proposal, Intelligent Automation, Incorporated (IAI) proposes an Automated Non-intrusive Health Monitoring tool for simultaneous component or structure degradation monitoring (trend analysis), fault detection, and diagnostics in ground systems. This prognostic technique, or health monitoring (HM) tool, can be combined with IAI's internetworking software to provide remote monitoring capabil ...

The key innovation in this effort is the development of a decision support tool for distributed air-ground scheduling sequencing, spacing and merging of aircraft in the terminal airspace, and the development of modeling and simulation testbed that will enable the evaluation of NAS wide impacts of technologies related to Airspace Super Dense Operations in the Terminal Airspace. The SBIR will prim ...

As space missions become more complex and as mission demands increase, robots, human-robot mixed initiative teams and software autonomy applications are needed to provide increasing levels of support to the mission and to Astronauts. Whatever the task, robot teams will need to interact with Astronauts and possibly Mission Control. There is a need for cooperation and communication among all autonom ...