Submission of proposals
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| PHASE II: Further develop, optimize and implement the approach developed in Phase I and demonstrate performance improvements by applying the developed coating technology to a full-scale gun tube. Emphasis should concentrate on designing methods to improve surface preparation and non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of the steel substrate.
PHASE III DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: This protective coating technology will have multiple uses for both military and commercial applications. Any systems where steel tubes are exposed to a corrosive, wear or erosion environment will have applications for this coating technique and benefit from this development. Examples would include engine or hydraulic cylinders, exhaust components manufacturing technology where sliding wear or erosion are a problem. Marine environments should not affect this coating. REFERENCES: 1) “Analysis of magnetron-sputtered tantalum coatings versus electrochemically deposited tantalum from molten salt”, Surface and Coatings Technology 120-121 (1999), 44-52. 2) Tri-Service “Green” Gun Barrel, www.serdp.org/research/PP/PP-1074.pdf. 3) "Analysis of magnetron-sputtered tantalum coatings versus electrochemically deposited tantalum from molten salt", Lee, Cipollo, Windover, Rickard; Surface and Coating Technology 120-121 (1999) 44-52. 4) Ceramic Gun Barrel Liners, Retrospect and Prospect: Dr. R. Nathan Katz, Worchester Polytechnic Institute, see: http://users.wpi.edu/~katz/coverpg.html 5) Gradiated Gun Barrel Fabrication Process, see: http://www.zyn.com/sbir/sbres/sbir/dod/navy/navysb03-1-065g.htm 6) Systems Analysis Physical Vapor Deposition of Tantalum on Gun Barrel Steel, US Environmental Protection Agency, e-mail address: http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/std/sab/ta_pvd.htm 7) R. A. Srinivas, M. Xi, Ming, B. Metzger, Z. Lando, M. Narasimhan, and F. Chen, Enabling and cost effective TiCl4 based PECVD Ti and CVD TiN processes for gigabit DRAM technology Source, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, v. 3883, 1999, p 137-147. 8) J. J. Hautala and J. F. M. Westndorp, Patent US 6,413860, Apr. 27, 1999. 9) R. N. Johnson, “ElectroSpark Deposition: Principals and Applications”, Proceedings of the 45th SVC Technical Conference, April 13-18, 2002. 10) R. N. Johnson, “Electro-Spark Deposited Coatings for High Temperature Wear and Corrosion Applications”, Elevated Temperature Coatings: Science and Technology I, N. B. Dahotre, J. M. Hampikian, and J. J. Stiglich, eds., TMS, Warrendale, PA, 1995, pp. 265-277. 11) Robert F. Lowey, Gun Tube Liner and Wear Protection, TPL, Inc Report Number TPL-FR-ER31, ARO Tech Report Number 39097.1-MS-SB2, Contract DAAD 19-99-C-0002, 30 May 2002.
PHASE I: Develop methodology/design and implementation of a low cost EPD system, which will result in a state of the art system. The EPD fire control unit conceptual operational electronic capabilities will be defined and demonstrated in a bread board configuration. PHASE II: The effort will focus on designing, fabricating and testing one EPD. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: With appropriate modifications the EPD could accurately sense the azimuth with respect to north and elevation (tilt) of airplanes, ships, vehicles, buildings etc. This “sensor” could be a very compact electronic unit with a digital pointing and "level" output display. Avoided would be use of similar more expensive, larger, heavy pointing devices. A modified EPD could also provide direction in mils to a visible fixed reference point(s). Since it is compact, the unit's electronic location sensor and digital readout could be adapted for users of boats, and by bikers, hunters, surveyors, etc. where elevation and azimuth bearings to a known point(s) is required. With this information the distance to a point could be approximated. The observer's location could also be determined by triangulation if two bearing points are available. REFERENCES: 1) “Guidance, Navigation, and Control from Instrumentation to Information Management,“ Eli Gai, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 10-14, Jan-Feb 1996. 2) “The Development of Modern Inertial Navigation Systems,” W.X. Fu and C.Rizos, Proc. 3rd Satellite Navigation Technology Conference, Sydney, Australia, 8-10 April, paper no. 11. 3) “Modern Navigation, Guidance, Control,” Ching-Fang Lin, Prentice Hall, 1991. 4) “Navy and Industry Investigate New Super-accurate Optical Gyros for Possible Use on Ballistic Missile Submarines,” Edward Walsh, Military & Aerospace Electronics, December 2001.
A03-015 TITLE: Advanced Neutron Source for Radiography & Tomography TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PM Close Clombat Systems OBJECTIVE: Develop an innovative small electrically generated source of thermal neutrons meeting requirements for practical neutron radiography. DESCRIPTION: Practical applications for neutron radiography require thermal neutrons (energy range approximately 0.01 eV to 0.5 eV) of flux density of approximately ten billion neutrons per second per steradian from a point source of less than two millimeters in diameter. Neutron generating tubes using deuterium-deuterium (D-D) and deuterium-tritium (D-T) reaction have been around for many years. Unlike neutron radioactive sources, neutron radiation exists only when the deuterium ions are accelerated when hitting the deuterium or tritium target. Hence, the tube’s advantages are: it can be turned on and off like an x-ray tube, deuterium is not a controlled substance, and the tubes can be small (less than 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters) and portable. The D-D reaction produces a 2.4 MeV neutron and the D-T reaction produces a 14 MeV neutron flux, both referred to as fast neutrons. Neutron radiography is best done using thermal neutrons, which can be created by moderating the fast neutrons emanating from the tube. Current neutron tube’s flux output is inadequate to provide the thermal neutron flux density required for practical radiography. This solicitation is for a point source of thermal neutrons of sufficient flux for practical neutron radiography, which, like the neutron tube described above, is small, portable and is not naturally radioactively generated. The source should include a hermetically sealed generating tube, power supply and controlling electronics, moderator, etc., necessary for a self-contained system. The proposed source should be compared with all advertised neutron tubes, highlighting why the proposed solution excels over others. PHASE I: Design the advanced neutron source. Provide convincing argument, preferably through simulations, from theory in conjunction with empirical data, that it will meet the described performance parameters. Phase II: Fabricate a fully operational neutron source that meets the requirements for practical neutron radiography. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Small intense neutron sources have hundreds of applications. Built appropriately, thousands of units would be readily sold and deployed into applications. Applications include neutron radiography for security screening, industrial inspection, and medical diagnostics. Neutron therapy applications exist. Intense portable neutron sources are the best tool for finding buried mines for the de-mining application. REFERENCES: 1) WEB site: Products from Thermo MF Physics A-320-4P.htm 2) Technology Transfer Department, E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, MS 90-1070, Berkeley, CA 94720, (510) 486-6467 FAX: (510) 486-6457 3) NonDestructive Testing Handbook, 2nd Edition, Volume three – Radiography and Radiation Testing, American Society for Nondestructive Testing, 1985 KEYWORDS: neutron source, neutron radiography, non-destructive testing, deuterium, tritium, neutron generatring tubes, thermal neutrons A03-016 TITLE: Innovative Real -Time Titanium Manufacturing
1) The NIST Automated Arc Welding Testbed http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/documents/rippey/awms97.pdf 2) Development of Robotic GMAW Workcell for Fabrication of Ti6A1-4V Machine Gun Receivers. http://www.titanium.org/PDF/Newsletters/March2002News.pdf 3) Common gun and torch questions for robotic welding. http://www.binzel.com.au/binzel.nsf/edithints/CFF5F9C6B0104296CA256B7B001A1073/$file/Common%20gun%20and%20torch%20questions%20for%20robotic%20arc%20welding.pdf
A03-017 TITLE: Intelligent Agent Technologies for Homeland Defense TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems ACQUISITION PROGRAM: HomelandSecurity Office, Picatinny OBJECTIVE: Develop algorithms, design methodology and processing architectures to support implementation of real time intelligent agent technology for coordinated, rapid information retrieval, fusion, and prediction of potential threats for Homeland Defense. DESCRIPTION: The terrorist/ threat prediction process and generation of the common relevant operational picture (CROP), be it carried out by human analysts or an intelligent system, is very data intensive. The data are usually distributed across several services, multi-national forces and/or agencies and in various formats. The problem is how to automatically accumulate relevant data from such distributed and heterogeneous data sources so that minimal amount of time is spent in learning individual data formats. Intelligent agent technology can greatly enhance data retrieval efficiency by automatically locating and retrieving data based on user queries. Once the specific data sources have been located and retrieved, they need to be fused based on some standard ontology to support rapid situation and threat assessment and prediction. The amount of relevant data that are being accumulated has become overwhelming. A manual analysis to look for indications and warnings of threats into such data is highly time consuming. Intelligent techniques therefore need to be employed that can automatically assess and predict threats in a timely manner. Such techniques should be robust in order to deal with uncertain and incomplete data. Specific areas of research within intelligent agent technology for Homeland Defense include: 1) Retrieval of data from distributed heterogeneous data sources based on agent technology 2) Fusion of accumulated information 3) Situation and threat assessment based on artificial intelligence techniques that can deal with uncertain data, such as Bayesian belief networks Prediction of terrorist activities preferably taken into account the spatial and temporal dimensions PHASE I: Develop the methodology, computational approaches and architectural concepts to support design and implementation of real time intelligent agent technology for coordinated, rapid information retrieval, fusion, situation assessment, and prediction of potential threats for netted fires and Homeland Defense applications. Problem formulation should take into account heterogeneity and voluminous nature of distributed data sources. Phase I will also identify specific software development and design tools, provide preliminary concept definition and specification of implementation environment. PHASE II: Develop a fully integrated design and prototyping environment to support generic intelligent agent technology for coordinated, rapid information retrieval, fusion, and prediction of potential threats for Homeland Defense. The environment will include components for information retrieval, fusion, situation assessment and prediction. Develop detailed agent algorithms, application scenario, and software prototype and evaluate via simulation. Optimize module algorithm design based on test data and provide complete documentation of algorithms and the architecture. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Militarily, this technology can also be applied to the FCS system. There are many dual use applications of such intelligent agent technology. For example in the law enforcement community, this research could be applied to money laundering and drug dealing arena. On the commercial side, this research is applicable to detect credit card and telecommunication fraud by collecting data from multiple corporate data sources. The research is also applicable to generate business intelligence by collecting and analyzing data available over the web. REFERENCES: Das, S., Shuster, K., and Wu, C. (2002) “ACQUIRE: Agent-based Complex QUery and Information Retrieval Engine,” Proceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Bologna, Italy (July). Pearl, J. (1988). Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems: Networks of Plausible Inference. San Mateo, CA, Morgan Kaufman. KEYWORDS: Intelligent Agents, Homeland Defense, Information Retrieval, Situation Assessment, Threat Prediction A03-018 TITLE: Innovative High Resolution Thermal Imager with Small Optics TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PM Close Combat Systems OBJECTIVE: Design and build an innovative, automated thermal-imager with 360° field of view (FOV) optics to provide instantaneous full horizon detection, location and tracking of multiple targets. DESCRIPTION: An automated target detection, location, and tracking sensor is needed to provide situational awareness of battlefield activities for target detection. An 8 to 14 micron uncooled, infrared, focal plane array thermal imager with 640x480 pixel resolution has the potential to provide day/night detection of personnel, aircraft and vehicles even when camouflaged. The novel combination of this high-resolution thermal imager with 360° FOV optics are needed to provide accurate target bearing, temperature profiles, and rough order of magnitude target imaging which can aid classification, discrimination and identification of targets. Innovative new technologies are required to make the 360° FOV sensor practical for the battlefield. The new technologies should encompass low cost, small optical lenses as opposed to the current expensive germanium or gold components, while still maintaining the required signal intensity level. It is expected that the sensor will be integrated with other unmanned ground sensors automatically to cue the imager. Also, it is expected to be integrated with GPS and an electronic compass to resolute target locations in Latitude and Longitude. An Automated Target Recognition (ATR) algorithm will be developed that combines the temperature profiles and shape icons with acoustic, seismic and magnetic target features to significantly enhance the ATR capabilities of remote sensors. When combined with other unmanned ground sensors, the thermal imager can be more effective than existing sensors. The integrated prototype sensor will be demonstrated against personnel, vehicles and aircraft to determine its automated capability; the number, type, speed, and direction of travel, location; and characteristics of targets on the battlefield. PHASE I: Design an integrated 640x480 pixel, high-resolution, 8 to 14 micron, uncooled thermal imager with 360° FOV optics. PHASE II: Develop an integrated prototype thermal imager with 360° FOV optics. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: For military applications, the research will determine if it is possible to mass-produce the IR reflective optics for less than $100 so they can be incorporated into the intelligent munitions system. This 360° FOV thermal imager can also be used for a variety of homeland security applications such as border monitoring, airport security, high value (power plants, chemical plants, water plants, etc.) facility protection, transportation security (subways, trains, highways, bridges, tunnels, etc.). Commercially, it can be used for detecting animals on highways, avalanches, protecting railroad crossings, and for ground control applications. REFERENCES: 1) AFRL-IF-RS-TR-2001-211, Sensor Data Collection and Management over a WEB, McQ Associates, POC Russell Thomas. 2) Into the Woods: Visual Surveillance of Non Cooperative and Camouflaged Targets in Complex Outdoor Settings, Vision and Software Technology Laboratory, Lehigh University, POC Dr. Terry Boult.
A03-019 TITLE: Artifact Free Tomographic Algorithms TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PM Close Combat - Mines, Countermines, Demol OBJECTIVE: Develop new computer x-ray tomographic reconstructing algorithms which do not create artifacts in the images. DESCRIPTION: Tomographic reconstruction techniques by computed tomography (CT) have been continuously improving over the last years, but all of the algorithms create artifacts. For instance, nearly all CT algorithms calculate the density of volume elements within the reconstructed volume using a back-projection process. In these algorithms the absorption of an x-ray passing through the volume is evenly attributed to all of the volume elements through which the x-ray passed. This calculation always predicts the wrong density (which is the primary source of the artifacts) for the volume elements, but is most severe and noticeable when a very highly absorbing volume element is adjacent to lesser absorbing elements. These artifacts are perceived in the tomographs as dark and light rays emanating off sharp edges of the reconstructed volume. This solicitation is for development of one or more algorithms which drastically reduces or eliminates all artifacts, including that just described. Previous works to reduce artifacts require a prior knowledge of the geometry of the object to be reconstructed. The proposals for this solicitation must be indifferent to the geometry of the object. They must be applicable to full body reconstruction using cone beam CT, that is, reconstruction of all adjacent volume elements throughout the entire object, as opposed to reconstruction volume elements in one or more isolated cross-sectional slices through the volume. Proposals must show that the author has in-depth comprehension of the cause of numerous kinds of artifacts and a description of why the proposed methods should eliminate such. PHASE I: Using both real data from actual objects and phantom data, develop one or more algorithms that result in greatly reduced artifacts. Quantify the reduction in artifacts for the developed algorithms comparing them to one another and to existing published and commercial algorithms. For Phase 1, the algorithms need not calculate rapidly. Phase II: Optimize the algorithms so that they can produce a full body tomographic 3-D reconstruction on serial processors ganged in parallel. Reconstruction time for a volume exceeding 1300 by 1300 by 1300 volume elements must be less than ten minutes, where the raw data is 1300 by 1300 pixels by 361 rotational views. Demonstrate and deliver operational and source code, which is sufficiently documented that a computer programmer unfamiliar with the code can modify and maintain it. The code must be tested against images of objects having sharp and dense edges and corners, such as steel bars and gears, where density variation factors are five or greater within three volume elements. The code must not produce noticeable artifacts of density greater than one tenth of one percent of the true volume element density. Directory: osbp -> sbir -> solicitations solicitations -> Army sbir 09. 1 Proposal submission instructions dod small Business Innovation (sbir) Program solicitations -> Navy sbir fy09. 1 Proposal submission instructions solicitations -> Army 16. 3 Small Business Innovation Research (sbir) Proposal Submission Instructions solicitations -> Air force 12. 1 Small Business Innovation Research (sbir) Proposal Submission Instructions solicitations -> Army 14. 1 Small Business Innovation Research (sbir) Proposal Submission Instructions solicitations -> Navy small business innovation research program submitting Proposals on Navy Topics solicitations -> Navy small business innovation research program solicitations -> Armament research, development and engineering center solicitations -> Army 17. 1 Small Business Innovation Research (sbir) Proposal Submission Instructions solicitations -> Navy 11. 3 Small Business Innovation Research (sbir) Proposal Submission Instructions Download 1.85 Mb. Share with your friends:
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