Award Data

The objective of the proposed Phase-II effort by Spectral Energies LLC is to design and develop a fiber-coupled hyperspectral thermal LWIR imaging sensor suite to provide reliable, accurate 2D surface temperature measurements with high flexibility in practical gas turbine engines and propulsion systems. During the phase-II efforts, our team will work with fiber manufacture on custom designing of a ...

ColdQuanta, in partnership with Dr. Zoya Popovic at the University of Colorado at Boulder, proposes to develop a three-dimensional quantum-enhanced radio-frequency (RF) signal sensor and direction finder. Our approach combines Rydberg-atom-based RF electrometry and discrete lens arrays (DLAs) of planar antennas. The DLA will serve as a Fourier optic for an incident wave, and a Rydberg-atom RF elec ...

There is a critical need for the development of dynamic IR materials that can be used to form device level components and systems necessary for mid to long wave infrared (3-12 µm) applications. To meet these future needs, the team proposes to develop tunable optical elements based around metamaterial surfaces or metasurfaces. Metasurfaces are a class of engineered materials where arrays of sub-wa ...

Recent technology advances have enabled the simulation community to achieve greater realism in virtual training environments, including physics-based simulated sensor views. As new methods for sensor view generation are developed, the lack of readily available supporting data to populate these specialized techniques limits their implementation. Currently the capability is not available to efficien ...

Structural reactive materials (SRMs) or multifunctional energetic materials offer the ability to combine the high energy release rates of traditional high explosives with structural strength.When successfully formulated they can lead to light-weight, high-performance and hitherto inaccessible designs of munitions. The key feature of structural energetic materials (SEMs), perhaps even more so than ...

Thermoelastic structures pose a critical challenge to designers due to the inherent design dependence of thermal loading on structural thickness. This is further exacerbated by structural nonlinearity due to in-plane, and more importantly, the out-of-plane bending deformation that further increases the effective loading on the structure. During Phase I of this project, we have added significant ne ...

Military systems operate in complex, adversarial environments where their initial planned operations are often overcome by events, but soldiers use those systems in creative ways to achieve their mission objectives. For example, complex ground robotic systems that were initially deployed for surveillance and explosive ordinance disposal have instead been used as decoys, ammunition carriers, and ot ...

Spectral Energies proposes to design a multisensory diagnostic suite for measurements within elevated-pressure RDEs. This sensor will utilize tunable-laser absorption spectroscopy to measure temperature, pressure and H2O concentrations in the annulus of a rocket-RDE and background-oriented schlieren imaging system for flow density gradient imaging to provide time resolved information about the sho ...

As both the response speed and sensitivity of thermal imagers have improved significantly over recent years, new IRSP systems are needed to provide greater dynamic range and faster response speeds. Addressing these issues, as well as producing a cost effective and modular IRSP system will be critical for providing quality scene projection for the next generation of infrared imagers. To address the ...

We propose to develop Cyber RAMPART as an extensible and customizable training delivery tool with near-term transition potential. It will offer shipboard operations personnel the opportunity to develop foundational cyber awareness knowledge and skill that prepares them to participate in their ship’s cyber defense mission and to hit the ground running in future fleet-level exercises that include ...