Award Data

Robotic Research in partnership with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) proposes to develop the Mobility Optimization via Enhanced Robotic Sensing (MOVERS) system for any two-wheeled, four-wheeled or tracked robotic platform to autonomously perform hazardous terrain detection and classification and adjust its driving control strategy to safely negotiate hazardous terrain. Our goal is to develop auto ...

It is accepted that certain animals have the olfactory and learning ability to be trained in the detection of explosives and other compounds. The possibility of using rats and other small mammals to detect landmines, and potentially IED's is very real. In order to perform the detection task efficiently and effectively, these animals need to be trained, and certified as reliable and accurate. ...

Technology Assessment & Transfer (TA & T) is a manufacturer of optical ceramic missile dome blanks that are delivered to optical fabricators who greatly increase the value of the domes by grinding and polishing to final specifications. Current inspection methods do not assure that every dome blank is worthy of further processing by the fabricators. TA & T will develop a suite of non-destructive in ...

Intelligent Automation Inc. (IAI) is teaming with subject matter expert Prof. Dan Roth from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to propose a web based tool to search, filter, and collaboratively work on"document chains"interactively. The proposed Semantic Inference and Filtering Tool (SIFT) will provide an intuitive interface coupled with advanced Natural Language Processing (NL ...

Hostile conflicts leave behind millions of armed landmines in developing countries throughout the globe. Humanitarian demining is hazardous and labor intensive. A promising development in landmine detection is using small, olfactory sensitive animals trained to act as biosensor detectors. But current methods require skilled trainers following strict protocols, and this extensive time and effor ...

The use of chaotic hybrid systems has been recently demonstrated in for potential noise-resilient matched-filter communications. A first demonstration at low (audio) frequencies using a combination of analog and digital components has been demonstrated. With this proposal, our objective is to devise a"chaos-on-a-chip"system that can exhibit similar features to those in while operating in the range ...

Propagation Research Associates, Inc., (PRA) and Duke University propose to extend the recent developments of matched filtered chaos into a low-cost high range-resolution chaotic waveform radar. In the Phase I effort, PRA and Duke will design the radar system and build a prototype waveform generator that will exploit three essential properties of chaotic waveforms that can be applied to enhance r ...

A new family of non-precious metal catalysts is proposed for the oxidation of ethylene glycol in an alkaline anion exchange membrane direct ethylene glycol fuel cell (AEM-DEGFC). The new catalysts proposed by Mainstream combine the most desirable characteristics of some already demonstrated catalysts, and are expected to exhibit high stability, minimal poisoning, and the full oxidation of ethylene ...

RCT Systems proposes a Thermoelectric Scalable Power Generator (TSPG) design capable of>300 Watts, operating continuous at 28 VDC in a package weighing1.5) nanostructure thermoelectric materials are utilized. An embedded processor controls combustion, power management and DC/DC conver ...

Modus Operandi proposes the development of reusable technologies called Affinity. Affinity identifies relationships and associations among people, objects and locations that have automatically been extracted from large volumes of both structured and unstructured data. Our innovative approach combines a mathematical information indexing and retrieval algorithm, called Latent Semantic Indexing (LS ...