Award Data

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in warfare, reconnaissance, and surveillance activities has increased dramatically over the past decade and, for the first time, offers cost effective, intelligence-gathering capabilities without placing soldiers and sailors at unnecessary risk. Current UAV platforms have already been equipped with a limited range of sensors such as miniature audiovisual ...

Zinc Sulfide (ZnS) is the most practical material for infrared transparent domes and windows operating at long wave infrared wavelength. Hard outer coatings have been applied to ZnS to protect it from rain and sand erosion. Theoretical analysis of multi-layer coatings suggests that a compliant layer between the hard outer coating and the ZnS surface may improve resistance to rain impact damage. In ...

Carbon nanotubes, have extraordinary mechanical properties, but these properties are difficult to manifest in composites, due to their limited interfacial bonding, and therefore the inability to transfer loads from a polymer matrix. Chemical functionalization of the nanotube surface is required to improve the interfacial load transfer, but functionalization may degrade the tensile properties of th ...

For many military operational scenarios there is an extremely large geographical theater. Providing coverage requires 100s to 1000s of sensing devices. Command and control (C2) of such a large number of devices, to provide time sensitive targeting (TST), poses a difficult technical challenge. Our solution to this problem is to use a hierarchy of unattended ground sensors (UGS). Ultra low-cost trig ...

This proposal is a joint effort between Qualtech Systems, Incorporated (QSI), the Institute for Software Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt University (VU), and Hamilton Sundstrand (HS) in Rockford, IL. QSI and VU have the combined knowledge and experience in successful development of a novel solution to aircraft system and subsystem prognostics and maintenance tools and have developed state-of-the- ...

ACTA Incorporated and the Center for Systems Reliability (CSR) at Sandia National Laboratories propose a seven month STTR Phase I Project to demonstrate the feasibility of developing Fault Diagnostics, Prognostics, and Self-Healing Control of Navy Electric Machinery. The new generation of Navy high power electric ships and electro-mechanical machinery challenge the predictive maintenance of ships ...

Techno-Sciences, Inc. (TSi) in collaboration with the Smart Structures Laboratory Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), proposes to develop an innovative energy harvesting device suitable for integration with electronics for data acquisition and wireless transmission used as a node. The energy harvester will be mounted to a substructure and use ambient vibrations for ener ...

New technology is needed for the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of defects in gas turbine engines. While these defects adversely affect hot-section performance and reduce component life, they are difficult to detect and characterize without destructive inspection. The lack of detailed flaw detection and characterization raises safety concerns, hampers fleet readiness and negatively impacts the li ...

The two primary motivations for this work are: First, to provide forecasts of dispersion of a hazardous release and associated uncertainty (or “error bars”) based on the available ensemble MET data. Second, to provide an efficient and user-friendly tool for decision makers supporting both deterministic and ensemble forecast MET data as well as resulting dispersion model forecasts. To achieve ...

Chesapeake Marine Technology, with suncontractors Anteon Proteus Engineering and the Georgia Institute of Technology, is proposing to demonstrate the feasibility of a ship-centric design tool that can be used to evaluate design trade-offs and optimize ship characteristics, with the ship considered to be one "System" in a System of Systems (SoS)environment. The proposed work is based on modifying ...