Award Data

Electromagnetic launchers or rail guns are a key component of the Navy’s all-electric ship of the future, but they lack the durability required for repeated firings. TDA Research and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) are developing a tough, durable and conductive refractory metal coating that will protect the copper alloy conductors (rails) from the extreme heat and wear conditions inside the ...

different modes, while using different combinations of subsystems. This presents a challenge for the personnel validating the system during design and development; the number of combinations of environments, modes, and subsystems is exponential. They cannot all be tested, so an optimal subset of tests must be run. We propose to develop VERITAS: Validation and Evaluation of Remote, Interactive Tea ...

The dependability, persistence, and versatility of unmanned systems have made them indispensable assets in today’s warfighting. As they are tasked to fulfill new missions in unpredictable, dynamic environments, they are transitioning from remote control into the realm of autonomy. Here they perform rapid and semi-autonomous behaviors, such as re-planning and re-tasking, to accomplish mission obj ...

Military shelters currently use electrically driven Environmental Control Units (ECUs) to provide cooling for the air inside the shelter. The ECU is vapor compression cycle powered by a diesel generator, operating on JP-8 fuel. Other than fueling jet engines, the largest drain on U.S. military fuel supplies in current operations comes from running generators at forward operating bases. In hot cli ...

Current issues with forward deployed flight simulator sickness prevent flight simulators from being used to their fullest potential. Infoscitex and the Mayo Clinic have been jointly developing a system for incorporating a vestibular display into flight simulators. In the Phase I program, we successfully demonstrated that using the vestibular display with a fixed-base simulator reduces both the inc ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase II proposal from Materials and Systems Research, Inc. (MSRI) and University of Utah (research institution) seeks to fabricate single-phase, polycrystalline tungstate ceramics with densities greater than 99.95% and a mean grain size of less than 1 um. These ceramics have been chosen because of their low thermal expansion and low elastic ...

Ferro Solutions has demonstrated in Phase I that ferro fluids can be used to create a self-pumping cooling system that can extend the life and improve performance of highpower transducers or other electro-mechanical devices. In the Phase I demonstration a resistor submerged in a ferrofluid was powered so that its temperature increased to over 1200C. Upon introduction of the appropriate magnetic fi ...

Icing is among aviation’s most serious weather hazards because it renders aircraft unflyable before flight and severely reduces aircraft performance during flight. Existing approaches for mitigating ice accretion on leading edges, such as the inflatable boot and liquid deicer can significantly increase weight, power requirements and manufacturing complexity without providing sufficient reliabili ...

Advances in modeling and simulation, networking, and computer graphics technology have made it possible to conduct large-scale, distributed live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) training events, such as the Navy’s Fleet Synthetic Training (FST) exercises, on a regular basis. However, FST exercises are not without room for improvement. Instructors and exercise controllers often confront difficult ...

Vertical short takeoff and landing (VSTOL) operators face numerous challenges, particularly during takeoff, hover, and landing operations. Threats take the form of power lines, structures, and—in the case of combat—enemy fire. Often, these threats are obscured when visibility is compromised by dust, sand, or snow. Maintaining awareness of the surrounding environment becomes almost impossible. ...