Award Data

Filamentation of ultra-short laser pulse propagation in non-linear media offers significant potentials allowing to address numerous problems in military and commercial sectors. However, practical implementation of this requires an ability to control the USLP at its propagation through inhomogeneous media, like turbulent atmosphere. On the basis of our approach for combating turbulence effects on p ...

Development of a concept of operations is proposed for autonomous hydrothermal vent detection in a single sortie. The concept involves active sonars (forward looking and swath mapping sonars, plus possibly a 1-2 MHz acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) for measuring midwater turbulence) mounted on a commercial AUV equipped with environmental sensors (e.g., CTD, fluorometer, MAPR-ORP). The AUV ...

We propose to adapt and automate the processes and technologies associated with evidence based decision support to the Navyproviding a tool that can synthesize current cognitive and learning science knowledge and inform decisions so as to maximize the value gained for each training expenditure. We will develop a plug-play architecture that will allow us to make the best use of emerging technologie ...

An advanced Li-Ion Battery Management System for DOD mission and safety critical platforms. The majority of Li-Ion Battery Management Systems (BMS) for DoD aircraft, helicopter, and directed energy weapons are custom designs for the individual Aerospace platform. This leads to increased cost over the battery life cycle due to the requirement to maintain the production facilities which produce repl ...

Crew resource management training systems are often constrained by the high cost and lack of flexibility in coordinating a large groups of human role players for part-task training. Motivated by the recent maturation of the speech synthesis and recognition technologies, speech-enabled crew role-player agents are being introduced to address these limitations. However, difficulties remain in customi ...

Towing of a Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) system is an important aspect of rotorcraftmaritime operation. The oscillatory rotorcraft combined with the long and flexible towingcable, the low mass ratio of the towed body to the towing aircraft, and the rotor wake effecton the towed body presents a challenge for integration of a modern MAD system withrotorcraft platform. The research objective is t ...

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a very promising technique for rapid, low-cost production of aircraft parts directly from a CAD file. AM is especially appealing for complex parts that would be costly or impossible to fabricate by machining or casting. At the current time there are no reliable, cost-effective techniques to qualify the finished parts. Several government studies have noted this gap an ...

This Phase II effort aims to deliver robust, reliable software that instantiates state-of-the-art feedback pseudospectral optimal control algorithms for flight trajectory optimization. The computation and real-time implementation of controls in nonlinear systems remains one of the great challenges for applying optimal control theory in demanding aerospace and industrial systems. From proportional ...

The pseudospectral optimal control (PSOC) problem is used for rapid trajectory optimization and provides the ability to re-optimize during flight. This technology was implemented on a Navy-relevant mission, and pseudo-real-time operation was demonstrated. The technical readiness level at the end of the Phase I program is a concept that has been shown to be feasible using analysis and simulation. T ...

Development of a new generation of high-energy-density capacitors for power conversion/conditioning systems will be beneficial to reduce the size, weight, and cost of resultant transmit and receive (T/R) modules in modern radar and electronic warfare transmitters. Among capacitor technologies available, multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) and polymer-ceramic composite dielectric based capacitors ...