Award Data

During Phase 1 of the project, Sharma & Associates, Inc. developed a concept for high speed freight truck intended for 70-ton, regular freight and bi-modal operation, at speeds up to 150 mph. The truck uses a rigid frame and an indpendent, compliant, primary suspension for its basic architecture. Constant contact side-bearings and yaw dampers were also added to improve dynamic performance. Vehi ...

Demonstration of Image-Based Change Detection using a Prototype Drone-Based Track Safety Inspection 3/16/2018 Today’s prevailing methods of visual track inspection tend to be expensive, disruptive to operations, and have potential to be less thorough than preferred. Machine vision technology emerged in the rail sector over a decade ago to help alleviate these concerns; however, due to the un ...

Transecurity is a company whose mission is to commercialize technology developed at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. VTTI researchers and engineers have made significant breakthroughs in driver monitoring, crash risk assessment, and crash avoidance technology including drowsy driver monitoring and warning systems. Technical solutions under development include machine vision-based lane ...

Through previous grant awards from IES, researchers developed Graspable Math, a tablet-based intervention where middle and high school students create and manipulate complex expressions for basic operations as well as equations and equations systems and inequalities. In this project, the team will develop a prototype of Graspable Math Activities, an app with novel kinds of algebra practice and ass ...

Proposal title: Increasing Awareness About Intelligent Transportation Systems and Connected Vehicle Technologies for High School The goal of this FHWA Phase IIB SBIR program is to convert an existing board game that teaches students about Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Connected Vehicle (CV) technologies into a mobile game app that can be sold online as a commercial product. The boa ...

Our goal is to create a demonstrable prototype system at the end of Phase I which fuses IntelliDrive (SM) data with data from traditional inductive loop detectors and uses this data in a modified NEMA TS2 traffic signal controller within eTEXAS Model for Intersection Traffic to reduce traffic delay at intersections.  Our work will improve the safety of intersections and improve the mobility of traffic through adaptive traffic control which uses data produced by IntelliFusion, the product of our research.   The process of data fusion involves merging data obtained fr

Research is proposed to develop a locking mechanism for intercity (Amtrak) rotating seats that can be retro-fit to existing seats. Current intercity rail seats, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), present a safety hazard to the riding public. Post accident investigations show that passenger rail seats were found to have been uncontrollably rotated even though current se ...

Composite in-field pipeline repair technology is proposed that builds upon recent advances in composite repair techniques. Alternative composite materials and processes are proposed that will substantially ease in-field repair and reduce the time personnel are exposed to potentially adverse environmental conditions. Also proposed is a sensor leak detection system that can be optionally installed ...

NON-DESTRUCTIVE COERCIMETRY FRACTURE TOUGHNESS ASSESSMENT FOR STEEL PIPELINES 3/8/2018 COMET’s main objective is to develop the first coercimetry-based fracture toughness assessment solution. Phase I will demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of a non-destructive testing solution, based on coercivity metering, to assess material fracture toughness of steel pipelines; evaluating t ...

This proposal seeks to produce a unique thermographic coating inspection system that is customized for the inspection of bridge coatings. The system uses active thermography where IR sources are used to provide controlled heating to a coating system. The presence of a defect in a coating system will result in differences in heat flow, which can be imaged with an infrared camera. An off-the-shel ...