Award Data

This project addresses the specific need for an improved method for cleaning insulators that electrically isolate the third rail. Current methods are labor intensive and expensive, but the insulators should be cleaned regularly to avoid even greater expense. This project is to adapt an innovative photolytic paint stripper to cleaning insulators for the third rail. The overall objective is to de ...

The FRA has identified cab car end door kick panels as possible emergency egress panels. They could be used in circumstances where the convential emergency exits are unusable. The industry has operational and maintenance concerns. The objectives of this SBIR are to define the requirements for end door emergency egress panels and identify alternative design approaches and assess their effectiven ...

Emc2's proposal provided to DOT in response to SBIR Research topic 07-PH1 on "Design Optimization for Soft Crack Arrestors" focuses on the development of key material property data needed to design "soft crack arrestors". This testing will be done over a range of temperatures to cover extreme conditions for future pipeline designs. It is also essential to develop this data at the loading rates t ...

An optical, non-contact roof deformation monitoring system will be designed based on an existing multi-point, non-contact, multi-axis optical sensor-based measurement system that is currently used to measure chest deflection in crash-test dummies. The research involves determining suitable components to be used in the optical path, from high-power LED arrays through lenses and optical sensors. T ...

Railroad freight car safety and maintenance cost is directly related to knowledge of the actual braking force provided by a brake shoe. If the brake force is too low, safety is at risk. If the brake shoe is replaced before the end of it's lifetime to ensure safety, maintenance and thus operating costs are increased. Currently there is no system in place to monitor brake shoe force during train ...

AS A RESULT OF THE INCREASING VOLUME OF AIR TRAFFIC IT HAS BECOME APPARENT THAT A NEED EXIST FOR A DEVICE OPERATED ON BOARD THE AIRCRAFT TO WARN THE PILOT OF OTHER AIRCRAFT THAT MAY POSE A POTENTIAL COLLISION. OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP A INEXPENSIVE TCAS I SYSTEM (AD-VANCED TECHNOLOGY AIRBORNE TRAFFIC ALERT AND COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM) THAT MEET "ALL" OF THE FAA TCAS I REQUIREMENTS AS PER RTC ...

THE MODE S DATA LINK UNDER DEVELOPMENT BY THE FAA IS AN ESSENTIAL UPGRADE TO THE EXISTING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL (ATC) SYSTEM. IN ORDER TO INSURE THE IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY OF ATC SERVICES MEDIATED BY THIS DATA LINK, IT WILL BE NECESSARY TO ASSESS ITS EFFECTS ON THE WORKLOAD AND PERFORMANCE CAPABILITIES OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS. CONSEQUENTLY, IN PHASE I, NTI INCORPORATED WILL DEVELOP ...

This proposal addresses the NGA SBIR program objective to develop and demonstrate GPS receiver improvements for ground users to provide significant “high-sensitivity” signal tracking performance over conventional military GPS receivers. The proposed system consists of (i) the Mayflower “NavAssure” SAASM GPS receiver; and (ii) receiver software signal processing enhancements, in order to m ...

Detection, classification, and characterization are the key to enhancing motorcycle safety, operations and travel estimation. Motorcycle fatalities are currently estimated at 30 times those of auto fatalities per Vehicle Mile Traveled (VMT). Although it has been an active research area for many years, motorcycle detection and classification still remains as a challenging task. The goal of Phase I ...

In the Open-source microscopic traffic simulation models project, a component based software framework is proposed to re-engineer CORISM data struture and CORISM interface. Under the architecture combing the innovative framework and the legacy CORISM, prototype of the open source traffic flow simulation models will be developed and demonstrated in the Phase I. In addition, areas identified by th ...