Award Data

The use of night vision devices (NIVUs) by US Army foot soldiers, aviators, and drivers of combat and tactical wheeled vehicles has enhanced operations at night by allowing increased mobility and potentially safer operations. With this increased capability in the night environment has come an increased exposure to the hazards of that environment and the risks that the command structure must manag ...

This program will develop methods for the design and synthesis of novel nanocomposite materials having self-assembled monolayer coatings for defense applications. Synthesis will be based on the combination of low-cost powder processing invented by NASA, and ionic self-assembled monolayer (ISAM) methods invented at Virginia Tech. F&S has exclusive licenses to both enabling patents. The powder pr ...

ABJ Integration Technologies, Inc. proposes to model a vertically optically interconnected stack of silicon integrated circuits to form a three dimensional system. This 3D system will utilize through-substrate optoelectronic communication to which the package and silicon are optically transparent. System optimization for user specifications will include materials and components such as emitters ...

Elastomeric O-rings provide a critical sealing funcion in a myriad of devices of military and commerical interest. A critical problem with currently available O-rings occurs when the O-ring material stiffens at low temperatures, causing a failure in sealing. Previous work by the Army has indicated that a fluid filled O-ring is a viable candidate as a low temperature seal. There is a need to extend ...

The ability of either a human observer or an automated sensor to recognize a target in an infrared scene depends both on the target and clutter content of the infrared scene. Metrics have been developed to quantify the difference between the target and its background, to be used as independent variables in the modeling of both observer performance and of automated seeker performance. We believe ...

Clutter metrics we important image measures for evaluating the expected perfomance of sensors and detection algorithms. Typically, clutter metrics attempt to measure the degree in which background objects resemble targets. That is, the more Target-like objects in the background the higher the clutter level. However, it is critically important that the effects that the sensor system and the oper ...

In spite of the fact that powerful desktop computers are readily available, the mechanics of antenna design has changed very little as a result. Computers are being used, but only as high speed calculators to solve models that were developed 30 years ago. Two new developments in electromagnetics have been recently published. The first is a general antenna pattern synthesis algorithm developed by ...

We propose the application of HEMS technology to the development of a tactile finger tip display device for operation in conjunction with finger force reflective devices. By co~ining high bandwidth finger tip acutation with lower bandwidth, large motion finger force reflection, we hope to gain full range-of-motion dexterity with the impression of sensitive surface touch. For medical diagnostic ...

One of the most challenging information management problems related to the Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA) missions is the real-time spatio-temporal fusion of target-specific cues from a netwotk of multiple sensor platforms. A robust algorithmic framework is necessary to involve the multiple agents together and achieve the optimal trade-off between low false alarm rate ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I program will develop a novel hybrid adaptive controller for intelligent control of mobile robotic arms. This technique will couple adaptive position control techniques with force control of the end-effector to enable mobile robotic arms to carry out complex tasks requiring close interaction with the environment. A candidate hybrid adaptive control ...