Award Data

ABSTRACT:The reduction of aerodynamic/hydrodynamic noise caused by violent turbulence is of strategic importance to many military systems. These include modern fighter jets, unmanned weapons with sensitive electronics, and surface and underwater vessels. For all these systems, aerodynamic or hydrodynamic noise can produce unacceptable levels of operational loads or acoustic vibrations, or be detri ...

ABSTRACT: The ability to maintain precision navigation without periodic position updates from external sensors such as GPS is challenging. One particularly challenging scenario is navigation for transonic through hypersonic weapon systems and UAVs. The flight dynamics and operational environment of medium / high altitude platforms limit the availability and precision of traditional non-GPS positi ...

ABSTRACT: For navigation of space platforms under GPS denied conditions, there is a need for micro-inertial sensors, with better accuracy and smaller volume and weight than the state of the art. We at Digital Optics Technologies (DOT) have been developing a superluminal ring laser gyroscope (SRLG) that can improve the accuracy of rotation sensing by nearly six orders of magnitude. Alternativel ...

ABSTRACT: MetroLaser proposes a test and evaluation methodology to optimize the information return of aero-optic wind tunnel tests, which are corrupted by mechanical vibration. The aero-optic and vibration effects are added and to separate them it would be necessary to accurately measure the effect of vibration on the overall signal. The proposed technology includes measuring the vibration of ind ...

ABSTRACT: FG Systems proposes to develop a Solid State Magnetocaloric Refrigerator (SSMR) which will provide a means of cooling infrared focal planes and other system components to their operating temperatures without significant consumption of cryogens. The SSMR will be a low vibration level system suitable for space-borne and air-borne applications, as well as have a very high efficiency comp ...

ABSTRACT: Toyon Research Corporation and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) are proposing development and feasibility demonstration of advanced algorithms for the detection of vibration signatures in scattered light. The algorithms are being developed for applications including space-based electro-optical (EO)/infrared (IR) sensing at high frame rates and extremely low signal-to-n ...

ABSTRACT: To address the Air Force"s need for a novel advanced imaging sensor concept that samples all of the information in the radiation field, taking inspiration from biological systems, Luminit proposes to develop a new Biomimetic Integrated Optical Sensor (BIOS) system. The system will be based on the unique integration of a wide field-of-view (FOV) miniature staring multi-aperture compound ...

ABSTRACT: The U.S. Air Force has a need to develop a new class of advanced, wide field of view (WFOV) imaging sensors that sample the radiation field in multiple modes: spectral, temporal, polarization, and detailed object shape. These multimodal sensors are to be deployed on high altitude drones to enhance their intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. Smaller versio ...

ABSTRACT: Tanner Research, Inc., in collaboration with University of Maryland, will determine feasibility and plan for development of technology based on insect visual sensing and processing, which will integrate three modes related to navigation and guidance: motion detection from imaging sensing; polarization sensing and processing to implement a celestial compass; and ocellar sensing and proce ...

ABSTRACT: IllinoisRocstar LLC and Purdue University propose a framework that enables field assessment of particle size and shape for use in ultra-high performance concrete. We will implement portable scanning approaches for particle size measurement and combine this with high performance computer modeling to optimize altering particle size proportions. Critically, the framework will be implemente ...