Award Data

We propose to develop a commercial weakly ionized plasma modeling capability based off of Tech-X’s high energy density plasma fluid code TxFluids. The new additions will be able to be used to model hypersonic vehicle physics including shock waves, plasma chemistry and innovative techniques for blackout mitigation and hypersonic vehicle control through the application of electric and/or magnetic ...

Military applications for the use of directed electromagnetic energy, which include high power microwave (HPM), seek to disrupt electronic systems by exploiting non-linearity in semiconductors. While current mode second breakdown is a thermal non-linearity often exploited, it has been demonstrated that a broad class of semiconductors have more subtle non-linearities that can be utilized to induce ...

The key to making quantum key distribution practical (especially for free-space applications) is to be able to use weak laser pulses (WLP) instead of single photons, while at the same time making sure that any third party wanting to avoid detection and mount an eavesdropping attack is restricted to using beam-splitting rather than photon-number splitting (PNS). In this effort, we propose a novel s ...

We apply the theory of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) to the design of guidance algorithms for controlling the motion of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with on-board sensors for tracking multiple ground targets. While POMDPs are intractable to optimize exactly, principled approximation methods can be devised based on Bellman’s principle. We introduce a new approximation ...

The growing complexity of future military systems demands the development of high-performance nonlinear control algorithms. The goal of this proposal is to develop a specially designed software/hardware architecture to enable real-time autonomous closed-loop control of nonlinear high-dimensional dynamical systems. Following the recent success of pseudospectral (PS) computational control methods in ...

Quantitative predictions of reactive flow dynamics from large-scale simulations of Liquid Rocket Engines (LRE) appear to be model dependent. Relationships and coupling among the dominant mechanisms most responsible for destabilization are obscured by the complexities of the model and subtle consequences of inherent ad hoc approximations not supported by mathematical rationale. The reliability of ...

This Phase I STTR proposal will demonstrate nanostructured “metal-black” coatings to enhance absorption by thin film solar cells. The problem is that silicon has low absorption due to its indirect gap. The opportunity is that nano-scale metallic scattering centers increase the effective optical path length and enhance the solar electric-field strength in thin-film solar cells, leading to more ...

Recent years have seen a shift in threats to US national security. Today increasing focus for national security is management of terrorist activities. Deliberately exposing a civilian population to chemicals and explosives to cause harm represents a looming terrorist threat. Early detection and identification is a difficult but essential element to minimizing the threat. The Seacoast Science/U ...

Aurora and Georgia Tech"s Phase I efforts demonstrated the feasibility of a partially distributed control scheme with separate controllers on the engine core and fan, where the controllers are linked by a supervisory controller. This scheme is representative of the situation encountered in VTOL UAV design and the design of new turbo-props and variable pitch turbofans by the large commercial gas t ...

Two-dimensional (2D) visualization techniques have limit capacity to achieve understanding of full dimensionality of the battlefield. Rewritable 3D holographic storage is promising for updatable 3D display applications. In Phase I, New Span Opto-Technology has demonstrated novel concepts of both holographic recording technique and recording material system without the use of high voltage. We have ...