Award Data

State-of-the-art Structure From Motion (SFM) techniques are combined with novel methods to yield a real-time SFM capability for long calibrated image sequences. Unlike most approaches, the work is tailored to long continuous sequences of calibrated imagery generated from the near-planar small-baseline motions of a loitering aerial platform. This environment enables novel approaches for optimizin ...

Ex-PERT, proposed under this SBIR, will aid a human decision maker in filtering contractor proposed solutions that match requirements, reducing the time to select an appropriate solution and hence, reducing the overall system development cycle-time. The work effort will 1) develop a capability to match textual descriptions of requirements to relevant textual descriptions of contractor proposed so ...

A significant maintenance problem is to prescribe the best corrective action for a problem; thus requiring a system to be capable of reasoning about a history of symptoms and corrective actions. Considerable time and cost savings could occur if maintainers were provided with the best corrective action given a problem. Since much of the symptoms and corrective actions are recorded as free-form te ...

Current techniques for real-time detection of signaling pathways in live cells are limited. Accacia International LLC, will develop better strategies by combining the signaling properties of molecular beacons and aptamer beacons with the advantages of quantum dot photoluminescence to produce quantum dot beacons (QDBs). In order to demonstrate the potential of these novel signaling nanoparticles, ...

The use of reformable, reusable tooling can greatly reduce the time, cost and skills required for conventional tooling production, and no waste products are generated since the tooling materials themselves can be rapidly cycled from a hard tooling-capable state to a liquid-like state and back to the tool-capable state. We are proposing to create a new, lightweight, rapid tooling system for proto ...

Since the feedstocks used to make LO materials are themselves the products of chemical reactions, they're susceptible to decomposition or further chemical reactions, for convesion to either - Recyclable feedstock for LO manufacture or - Beneficial use in other products by destroying their LO characteristic, masking their original composition and eliminating the listed or characteristic constit ...

Currently, mid-infrared lasers must be integrated into highly restrictive volumes near the outer surfaces of air platforms. Fiber coupling of mid-infrared lasers would enhance the tactical utility for such devices by enabling the laser to be remotely located from the pointer-tracker. The proposed work will demonstrate the efficient fiber coupling of a mid-infrared semiconductor laser in a low lo ...

This Phase I project proposes an improved laser designator module. This improved module combines diode-pumping with a unique ceramic laser medium and innovative thermal management to provide a system that is small, lightweight, and able to be fully-operational in less than 30 seconds. This design is potentially 5x lighter than current designators, with equivalent optical performance.

The Navy needs a compact extended range underwater imaging system that can image through > 6 attenuation lengths with 0.25" resolution. Present systems are limited by scattering to ~ 5 attenuation lengths. To meet the need, we propose a compact, adaptive raster scanner, using a doubled Yb fiber laser for the transmitter, a wide field-of-view (FOV) receiver, and an annular APD detector array, ena ...

The MDA and other elements of the Department of Defense (DoD) have multiple applications for high power laser sources, including deployment in space where power, size, weight and refueling logistics are issues. Applications include acquisition and identification of missiles or other threats, tracking and destruction of such threats, decoy rejection, and defeat of enemy electro-optic sensors. Hig ...