Award Data

Increasing the distance for standoff detection of nuclear materials, beyond that capable with direct radiation detection, using “alternative signatures”, such as the concentration of ionization in the surrounding atmosphere, improves the ability to locate, track and monitor this material. Ionizing radiation generates free elections, ions, and exited states in the nearby atmosphere, even when t ...

The use of WMDs and IEDs by covert insurgents and terrorists poses a significant risk to U.S. military forces and civilians. The capability to execute rapid forensic DNA analysis to identify individuals who manufactured and transported these threatening devices is of paramount importance to military mission, homeland security and civilian safety. Current DNA forensic analyses are time-consuming, b ...

Certain lanthanide halides have significantly higher light output than NaI:Tl, the comparison standard for scintillators, plus other important properties, including fast decay times and excellent proportionality. Unfortunately, lanthanide halides grown by traditional melt processes have high production costs and limited availability. Crystals are usually limited to about 5 cm x 5 cm, right cylinde ...

Terrorist use of radioactive nuclear materials via nuclear and/or radiological dispersion devices (dirty bombs) is a serious threat. Therefore, it is crucial to detect proliferation of nuclear material. Critical challenges include: (a) high sensitivity detection of signature emissions from radioactive isotopes, and (b) cost-effectiveness for deployment of sensor networks across large storage facil ...

TDA Research, Inc. (TDA), designed, built, and tested a dense array of 100 very low cost infrasonic sensors. Due to their low cost (1/100x-1/10x the cost of other infrasound sensors), they can be economically deployed in very large numbers; such large arrays can gather more information than a few expensive sensors. They are sensitive from 0.1 Hz - 100 Hz down to 0.08 Pa. We tested the sensors in s ...

GreenSight Agronomics (GSAg) is proposing to develop a man-portable, fully autonomous aerial mapping system to satisfy the goal of the solicitation: quickly and completely mapping a confined space with no human guidance. The vehicle will have a 400 mm frame size to provide an ideal balance between maneuverability, flight time, and payload capacity. We have chosen the Pixhawk platform running ArduP ...

In response to the DTRA182-002 solicitation, we propose CANTEAN: Cave and Narrow Tunnel Exploration and Navigation, a flying system that employs the use of low-SWaP sensors and processors using advanced algorithms for rapid navigation and mapping of unknown, subterranean areas as part of a heterogeneous team. Bio-inspired obstacle avoidance and navigation and the efficient exchange and merging of ...

Future high-performance integrated circuits in DoD satellite systems will require non-planar nano-technology devices, such as MultiGate Field Effect Transistors (MuGFET) or FinFET, which can decrease pattern area of logic circuits below 50% of the conventional planar technologies. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors predicts that such devices will be the cornerstone of sub-32nm ...

For applications in DoD satellite systems, devices based on novel nanomaterials offer significant advantages over traditional technologies in terms of light-weight and efficiency. Examples of such novel devices include quantum dot (QD) based solar cells, photodetectors, radars and sensors. However, the response of these devices to radiation effects is not well understood, and radiation effects mod ...

Miniaturized smart munitions are seeing increasing use across all branches of the Department of Defense (DoD) in order to meet the ever evolving mission needs for the U.S. warfighter. These smart micromuntions have been enabled by advances in capabilities and miniaturization of critical microelectonic and microelectromechanical systems such as sensor, navigational, communications, and triggering ...