Award Data

Busek Co. Inc. and Stanford University propose to develop and test an advanced high power plasma propulsion concept referred to here as a Coaxial High EnerGy Thruster, or CHENG thruster.  The thruster is first and foremost a propulsive device.  However, because the device is pulsed, compact, and efficient the plasma beam is highly condensed and energetic. For this reason, the thruster may also b ...

White River Technologies, Inc. (WRT) presents this proposal, "Acoustically/Vibrationally Enhanced High Frequency Electromagnetic Detector for Buried Landmines".The primary goal of the proposed effort is to develop a prototype vibrationally-enhanced detection system capable of landmine and IED detection and discrimination with performance greater than conventional GPR sensors.The main sensing compo ...

Typical acoustic materials rely on embedded continuous mass layer to attenuate low frequency sound. Energy from low frequency sound is not effectively mitigated with these materials unless a substantial amount of mass is added. Thus, standard materials for low frequency noise control tend to be heavy, expensive and difficult to install. A new technology is being developed that utilizes optimized ...

Irregular warfare is increasingly the dominant form of military engagement. It is dynamic and unforgiving of errors, requiring warfighters to adapt fluidly to novel, complex, and ill-defined problems. The goal of this STTR is to define, prototype and (in Phase II) develop a training tool that builds adaptive expertise. The system teaches the learner to recognize and understand the fundamental prin ...

Modern control theory offers mathematically rigorous and powerful solutions to many dynamic systems. Its limitations are that the classes of dynamic systems covered by the theory are limited to linear systems or certain well-structured nonlinear systems, and the adaptation of the controllers are often slow if the controller parameters are far away from their desired values. On the other hand, the ...

In our Adaptive Management and Mitigation of Uncertainty in Fusion (AMMUF) project, we will model the entire multi-sensor fusion process as a probabilistic model and reason about the different design and algorithmic decisions that can be made by system engineers. This fusion model will use standard fusion system representations and ideas from statistical relational learning field to create flexibl ...

The purpose of this proposal is to additively manufacture (AM) smart structures with embedded electronics such as sensors, accelerometers, antennas, etc. The goal of these smart structures will be to enhance the effectiveness and survivability of the Armys ground systems. The use of additive manufacturing smart structures provides flexibility in the materials used and the functionality of the elec ...

Karagozian & Case, Inc. (K&C) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) will develop a re-usable, cost-effective, and accurate dynamic characterization methodology capable of measuring the dynamic material properties of various materials of interest under very high strain rates. Materials property data for various ductile materials (e.g., steel and aluminum) are required as input to f ...

This program will demonstrate, for the first time, a commercial prototype high power fiber laser in the 3-5µm band, based on Agiltron chalcogenide glass infrared optical fiber technology. High power IR lasers that emit multiwatt output at various infrared wavelengths in the 212µm region are a long-standing technical challenge. Fiber lasers, widely considered the choice for almost all high power ...

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) offer significant benefits to the Army/DoD based on their high efficiencies, fuel versatility, quiet operation, and negligible emissions. Liquid tin anode solid oxide fuel cells (LTA-SOFCs) can operate directly on military logistics fuels (JP-8, JP-5, and diesel), even with high levels of impurities, thereby avoiding the requirement for an additional fuel reformer. ...