Vehicles and Performance
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Briefs Sensors/Data Acquisition
Characterization of a MEMS Directional Sound Sensor
There is a wide range of potential military applications in which ambiguity in bearing occurs with respect to sound. For example, autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could employ a...
Briefs Photonics/Optics
Photon Counting Chirped Amplitude Modulation Ladar
This work is a follow-up to prior efforts to develop a method using Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode (GM-APD) photon counting detectors in chirped amplitude modulation (AM) ladar receivers to...
Briefs Information Technology
C++ Architecture for Simulating UAVs
A conference paper describes the use of the CADAC++ software system for simulating operations of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) in conjunction with moving ground targets while interacting with other UAVs and with satellites that assist in targeting. CADAC++ was developed by rewriting the prior...
Articles Unmanned Systems
Micro Air Vehicles Serve as Eyes in the Sky for Ground Troops
Honeywell Aerospace has developed the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV), an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on ducted-fan technology that recently was deployed in Iraq to identify...
Articles Aerospace
Update on NASA’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
In the August issue of Defense Tech Briefs, we highlighted NASA’s Altair/Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for Earth science missions. A lot has happened in the past two months, so we’re...
Articles Physical Sciences
The Altair/Predator B: An Earth Science Aircraft for the 21st Century
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, has partnered with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) of San Diego, CA, to demonstrate technologies that...
Briefs Test & Measurement
Scaling of Flight Tests of Unmanned Air Vehicles
A program of research has addressed a methodology of scaling of flight tests of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) intended primarily for military use in observing and/or attacking targets on the...
Briefs Imaging
Miniature Hyperspectral Sensors for Imaging on Small UAVs
As unmanned vehicles get smaller and smaller, operational expectations and mission objectives demand a much broader array of platform capabilities — a necessity even with reduced...
Briefs Information Technology
Two-Processor Autopilot System for a UAV
A two-processor autopilot control system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been proposed and partly developed. Relative to prior such systems, this would be a lightweight, inexpensive autopilot...
Articles Defense
Open-Standard Multicomputers Address Next-Generation Multi-Function Radar Applications
Next-generation radar applications will drive performance demands that will have architectural implications for radar computing and electronics. Advanced...
Briefs Aerospace
Remote-Controlled Aerial Vehicle for Application of Pesticides
AFRL demonstrated its Remotely Controlled Aerial Vehicle for Application of Pesticides (RCAVAP) at the Force Protection Equipment Demonstration (FPED) conducted at Quantico Marine...
Briefs RF & Microwave Electronics
Unmanned SkyTote Demonstrates Capabilities
AFRL scientists are working on SkyTote, a novel unmanned air vehicle (UAV) that will take off and land vertically like a helicopter (see figure) but also transition into horizontal flight like a...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
AFRL Finding Ways to Decrease Unmanned Air Vehicle Costs
In support of the Aeronautical Systems Center's (ASC) Global Hawk Systems Group, AFRL has undertaken a program to study manufacturing tolerances for laminar flow on aircraft wings. On the...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
AFRL Supports Desert Hawk Program
AFRL aeronautical engineers collaborated with the Electronic Systems Center's (ESC) Force Protection Program Office, Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB), Massachusetts, to conduct an in-house effort assessing the...
Briefs RF & Microwave Electronics
Collapsing and Closing Unmanned Air Vehicle Swarms
AFRL researchers are exploring an adaptive and reconfigurable unmanned air vehicle (UAV) swarm configuration known as "collapsing and closing UAV swarms." This approach to developing UAV swarms...
Briefs Electronics & Computers
The Next Frontier of Networking—The Airborne Network
It is the next frontier of networking—a frontier where communication nodes may move at Mach speeds, wireless line of sight covers hundreds of miles, and weather affects communications...
Briefs Information Technology
Coordination of Autonomous Unmanned Air Vehicles
Future autonomous unmanned air vehicles (UAV) will need to work in teams to share information and coordinate activities in much the same way as current manned air systems. Funded by AFRL,...
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EV and Battery Thermal Management Strategies
Manufacturing & Prototyping
How Packet Digital Is Scaling Domestic Drone Battery Manufacturing
Automotive
Advancements in Zinc Die Casting Technology & Alloys for Next-Generation...
Automotive
Vehicle Test with R-444A: Better-Performing R-1234yf Direct Replacement for...
Test & Measurement
Vibroacoustic and Shock Analysis for Aerospace and Defense Applications