Award Data

In the near future unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will be utilized for many societal and commercial applications. However, the hurdle of operation safety in the form of avoiding airborne collisions must first be overcome. UAVradars LLC is proposing a small, lightweight, and low-power radar system designed specifically to give small UAS (< 55 lbs) airborne collision-avoidance sensory capability. ...

A 32x32-channel multiplexing Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) driver, which can hold a voltage signal with a 16-bit resolution or beyond, is proposed. Such a driver will greatly reduce the operation power, and are compact and reliable. When the ASIC driver is vertically integrated with a Deformable Mirror (DM), the potential wiring failure will be eliminated. Furthermore, radiation r ...

ADS-B is emerging as the defacto standard for manned aircraft in the context of NextGen ATM. There are several advantages to ADS-B, but most ADS-B gear was developed for manned aircraft, and some smaller versions have been developed for UAVs recently. However, even the smallest currently-available ADS-B transponder is still about 250g, which is not suitable for small UAVs, such as those becoming p ...

A hardware/software solution for autonomous reporting of flight operations of a UAS is proposed. Such a system would enable the UAS to report identity, position, and other information to local human and autonomous traffic and air traffic controllers in an autonomous manner, in legacy terminology. This will improve the overall safety of UAS operations, and lead to easier integration of UASs into th ...

The proposed research pursues a path for reducing structural weight, increasing structural performance, and reducing fabrication cost while also minimizing maintainability. The approach, which is based on selective reinforcement, is a change in the basic design philosophy and will result in the development of a hybrid material form. The selective reinforcement approach allows the structural desi ...

NextGen Federal Systems proposes an innovative SPace Radiation INTelligence System (SPRINTS) which provides an interactive and web-delivered capability that significantly improves long-range forecasts (2-3 days), all-clear forecasts, and forecast accuracies of solar particle events (SPEs). SPRINTS provides SPE-related data, visualizations, and forecasts that leverage and integrate two complimentar ...

This Phase I project is to investigate the feasibility for achieving EUV detectors for space applications by exploiting the ultrahigh bandgap semiconductor - AlN. We plan to devise methods to improve the AlN epitaxial material quality and device structures for EUV detectors. Specifically, we will study the properties of Si and Mg doped AlN epilayers and investigate n- and p-type doping issues in ...

Historically, biometric collection systems have been designed for fixed Law Enforcement office applications. Their limitations stem from the fact that they were designed for specific hardware collection sensors optimized for a specific application. To a large extent the software is proprietary to a single vendor’s sensor suite and not designed to accept international character sets. Current p ...

A method and device for situational awareness for unmanned air vehicles is presented. This enables integration of UAVs into the national airspace in a safe manner, equivalent to the level of safety of manned aircraft. Phase I results are presented and discussed. Phase II plans are discussed in detail. The Phase II will culminate in flight tests of the proposed gear. Alignment with national initiat ...

The need for aerodynamics-based efficiency enhancements for air vehicles is presented. The results of the Phase I investigation of concepts for morphing aircraft are discussed. Morphing enables the aircraft to optimize its configuration for various flight regimes. This translates to benefits in range, endurance, manueuvering and speed characteristics of the air vehicle. Using simulations, live tes ...