Award Data

The opportunity addressed in this proposal is a fast-acting cryogenic injection valve for pulse detonation rocket engines (PDREs), which are predicted to significantly out-perform current state-of-the-art chemical deflagrative rocket propulsion systems. The developed valve would allow high mass flow rates to be achieved with fast response times, all at minimum cost, weight, power, and volume. Th ...

Recent efforts in the target vulnerability community (fixed ground targets, mobile ground targets, and aircraft) have focused on enhancing the blast and fragmentation modeling from weapon detonations. This includes modeling propagation of the detonation effects from the weapon through their interaction with the target geometry, to the development of loads on and response of the target structure. ...

The objective of this work is to develop analytical techniques to characterize wear and gouging phenomena of slippers at speeds up to hypersonic and demonstrate means to evaluate or reduce slipper wear/gouging. Specifically, we will develop analytical techniques that can be used to predict slipper wear patterns and gouging phenomena throughout the sled velocity regime to Mach 10. This will inclu ...

Controlling millimeter radio frequency waves with optical signals is a requirement for military communications and radar systems. The advances in the past decade have led to photonic sensors and switches that utilize light beams interacting with RF devices. New capabilities extending to higher frequencies and working over multiple frequency bands are possible using a combination of nonlinear op ...

Simulation-based optimization techniques that enlist reinforcement learning controllers are ideally suited for complex and multi-objective optimization problems that cannot be solved easily using traditional techniques, especially when the stochastic natures or the environment, resources, and external interactive entities are taken into account. Reinforcement learning based on incremental value i ...

The Reconfigurable Operator Station Simulator (ROSS) project will provide designers of operator stations for Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with a rapid prototyping system. In addition, the architecture on which ROSS is based provides a platform on which to build tools that increase the ability of operators to control UAVs and to impart a far greater understanding of the situation to them. T ...

The Air Force has identified the need to develop affordable flight control technology to support Air Force Global Engagement objectives. Of particular interest to the Air Force is the development of real-time optimization algorithms for cooperative engagement solutions among Uninhabited Air Vehicles (UAV) in a multiple target environment. DSR proposes developing a real-time, rule based, Cooperat ...

F&S and their research partners propose a comprehensive plan to develop a fiber optic-ased chemical detection system for the quantification of metal contaminants in aviation fuel. The system will utilize recently developed long-period grating (LPG) technology which detects index-of-refraction changes resulting from target molecules binding to affinity coatings. Calculations based on experimental ...

Bends in waveguides are a problem for high-voltage Ultra-Wideband (UWB) systems. The difficulty arises because only a straight section of standard transmission line can support a pure TEM mode. And a pure TEM mode is necessary to preserve the risetime of the transmitted impulse. When there is a bend in the waveguide, the transmitted signal is a broader impulse than the incident signal. This ca ...

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