Award Data

Static organization charts and standard processes define roles, methods, and authority in useful ways for common missions. But these same, rigid structures force the organization to behave inefficiently, often ineffectively on problems in new domains, problems requiring new coordination methods and ad hoc teams. What is needed to facilitate rapid formation of effective human networks is a system ...

A key challenge for battlefield simulation is the estimation of enemy courses of action (COAs). Current adversarial COA development is a manual time-consuming process prone to errors due to limited knowledge about the adversary and its ability to adapt. Development of decision aids that can predict adversary’s intent and range of possible behaviors, as well as automation of such technologies wit ...

The objectives of this effort are to build upon the body of previous work by Cougaar Software Inc. (CSI) and University of Texas, Austin (UT) to develop a complete distributed framework for dynamic human / agent collaborative problem solving. This effort would specifically augment our current framework capabilities with key capabilities necessary to deliver a high-quality usable tool capable of a ...

One approach to locating illicit bomb factories in Iraq and Afghanistan is analytical monitoring within the ventilation systems of suspect residential buildings. We are proposing a multiple sensor analyzer that sequentially interrogates individual vents or ducts in such buildings and produces fingerprints characteristic of present target substances. The basic premise of this proposal is to loc ...

Our aim is to develop a nanofluidic-based sensor and instrument platform which will provide direct detection and quantification of analytes approaching molecular concentrations. We anticipate that the method will enable rapid detection and identification of presence or exposure to chemical and bioterror agents in air, water, contaminated surfaces, forensic samples, food and body fluids, as well ex ...

Luna Innovations will demonstrate the feasibility of using a novel set of nanoparticle fluorescence resonant energy transfer (FRET) probes to monitor protein dynamics via real-time single-molecule spectroscopy. The proximity-dependent FRET-like interaction between nanoparticles would translate into time-dependent spectroscopic monitoring of changes in a protein molecule’s shape. The nanopartic ...

Configurable computing devices, such as Field Programmable Gates Arrays (FPGAs), permit arbitrary reprogramming of the devices’ hardware structure after manufacture. This programmability greatly decreases development costs and time-to-market compared to Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Almost all commercial designs using FPGAs treat the configurable logic as static in the dep ...

This proposed work researches, designs, and prototypes a lightweight knowledge management tool supporting legacy communication protocols to assist organizations in automatically restructure themselves to meet new challenges and tasks. This tool promotes virtual reorganizations that connect individuals with common interests and functions irrespective of the official "organization chart" by display ...

The Tactical Teams project goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of a framework and relevant technologies to support multiple humans and robots in the collaborative performance of specialized tactical maneuvers. The ultimate objective of this project is warfighter support - enabling humans and robots to seamlessly cooperate in the execution of joint tactical maneuvers. In order to accomplish th ...

Low cost IR Sensors are needed for a variety of Military and commercial applications such as low cost thermal imagers and the ability to detect and defeat threats such as mortar fire on ground vehicles. SiGe based IR Focal Planes offers a low cost alternative for developing near IR sensors that will not require any cooling and can operate in the NIR band. The attractive features of SiGe based IRFP ...