Award Data

This proposal describes the use of machine learning, data mining and Bayesian inference algorithms for incorporation into a surveillance aircraft cognitive radar system. The need for incorporation of higher-order uncertainty distributions will also be assessed. This will result in enhanced sensor resource management capability for surveillance aircraft radar.

The development of a catastrophic optical damage model for quantum cascade lasers describing instantaneous laser damage at high optical power levels is proposed. The model will be validated by comparison to experimental data. Based on obtained results, changes to laser design and laser fabrication resulting in an increased damage threshold will be implemented. The work will ultimately result into ...

hazardous chemicals such as JP8, chromium, and byproducts of led-free frangible ammunition and to hazardous environments. Of the many dangers Airmen face, the hypoxia-like unexplained physiological events pilots face are some of the most dangerous and elusive. Current wearable sensors cannot decouple complex, interdependent in vivo response. We propose to develop (design, fabricate, test, and demo ...

The Air Force seeks three-dimensional bioprinted tissue that can accurately replicate complex multi-cell function and that can be integrated with biosensors. To address this need, Spectral Energies in collaboration with Prof. Khademhosseini of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) proposes to develop an organ-on-a-chip system. The organ-on-a-chip system will be capable of accurately mod ...

Vital sign, such as respiration rate and heart rate, provide important indications of the physiological and mental conditions of an Airman. Being able to understand the physiological and mental conditions of an operator is therefore of vital importance to improving the efficiency and efficacy of future Air Force operations. Current state-of-the-practice in continuous cardiopulmonary vital sign mon ...

The imaging vibrometer development will be based on a representative Directed Energy (DE) aperture assumed to be 30 cm. This effort will provide both DE and Combat IDentification (CID), modes for relative short range DE operations, and an ISR Combat IDentification (CID) mode for operation at extended range. A combination of analytic derivations and wave optics simulations will be used to define a ...

Locating objects that vibrate is a way to discern potential threats and locate targets. However, current vibrometry technology typically measures only the global vibration of target and cannot create an extended spatial measurement of the vibration profile of the target. These solutions cannot identify what the target is, nor can they locate potential weak spots on the target, because they lack sp ...

The research objective of the proposed work is to increase the efficiency of the laser return of a Sodium Guide Star Laser (SGSL) reflected off the sodium layer for increased reliability and applicability of the artificial guide star technique. During Phase I, we will demonstrate the concept of maximizing the SGSL signal returns using numerical simulations that account for the effects of atmospher ...

Large ground-based telescopes require adaptive optics (AO) to correct for distortions introduced by atmospheric turbulence. In order to function, the AO system must track a bright point source. Although a natural star may be used, full sky coverage requires an artificial beacon created with a laser. The most common type of laser guide star (LGS) employs the mesospheric layer of sodium atoms at an ...

New, innovative laser spectroscopy technology will be developed for performance quantification and combustion characterization in a Rotational Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE). The effort will push the state of the art in tunable laser absorption spectroscopy to enable fast time response diagnostics of the extreme pressure and temperature conditions of an RDRE.